Mirotic
by thejammys
Summary: [GaaLee College AU] Lee's a track star, Gaara's a photographer, and when Naruto introduces them to each other at the first party of freshman year, Gaara finds his new muse.
1. Gaara Doesn't Care About Getting Laid

A/N: My contribution to fandom will _always_ be the college au.

ooooo

"Woo hoo college party, yeah!"

Was there a more obvious way to announce to the world that you're a freshman?

"Oh man, this is gonna be so great. There will be girls, and probably one of those air hockey tables with all the cups, and I might even do the shots!"

Yes, yes there was.

School hadn't officially started yet, but in these last dregs of summer most students had already moved to campus and were reluctantly unpacking their lives into dorm rooms that aged about as nicely as a banana with an attitude problem.

But teenagers can always be trusted to make the best of bad situations, as the most grounded and emotionally stable people on the planet, and took their grimy floors and sketchy mattresses the only way such mature minds can.

Like a challenge.

 _Oh you think you're hot shit, dorm? You think you can scare me with a roach colony so big they've adopted Democracy and have universal health care? Hahaha- false._

The weekend before term started was the perfect time to let dorms know who the boss was. And even though year after year, the dorms always came up winning that war, the students continued to try.

The best way to start the tumultuous relationship off was to have a party.

None of the freshmen dorms were large enough to house any number of people large enough to rightfully call themselves a 'party', but they got what was coming when the drunken, sloppy tenants returned from the larger houses off-campus and made drunken, sloppy messes.

Year after year the freshmen didn't seem to realize that the joke was always on them – _they_ were the ones who had to clean up their own messes or suffer the wrath of an irritable roommate.

The sophomores had it a bit better. They were usually placed in suites instead of dorms, meaning that each roommate got their own bedroom. It's much easier to maintain a peaceful homeostasis among roommates when inebriated fools can be sequestered to their chambers once they start becoming a nuisance.

But multiple bedrooms don't just mean quarantines for drunkards - that also means the suites could be co-ed.

In the long history of the university not a single female who lived co-ed had managed to get through an entire year without resenting the bathroom situation at least once, but for the most part the school had not experienced more than a handful of complaints.

For some reason this made Naruto believe that every suite and house with students for tenants was automatically purple and that he could look forward to possibly being a girl's bedroom tonight.

It's the little things.

While Naruto excitedly pawed through his trash bag stuffed with clothes he completely missed the unamused expression his roommate and friend was aiming at him.

"Now what should I wear – what let's everyone know that I'm _cool_..."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and then closed them.

Naruto was fighting an uphill battle if he thought clothes could excuse saying things like "the shots" to the upperclassmen.

Personally, he was not concerned with the impression he left at this party, since he didn't really want to go in the first place, but he didn't want Naruto to make himself crazy over something as trivial as this.

"You're overthinking it," he mumbled from where he was lying on his bed. His things were still packed in boxes, but he would get to that later.

Naruto's head popped up from the pile of unwashed clothes he was sifting through.

"Shikamaru! How can you say that!" he yelled, and although the sentiment had begun with 'how' it didn't sound like a question.

But Shikamaru's eyes stayed closed and he sighed. "It's just a party, Naruto. I don't expect anything life-changing to come out of tonight."

He heard Naruto crack his knuckles and then chuckle conspiratorially

"Didn't I tell you there would be girls there?"

Oh, Naruto.

"Well best of luck to you in attracting one, but I still think you're worrying too much," Shikamaru mumbled before rolling onto his side to enjoy the pre-party nap his bed had just talked him into.

"Mark my words, Shikamaru," Naruto began as he dove back into his trash bag of clothes and missed that his friend was turned away and probably not listening. "Tonight _will_ be a success!"

ooooo

Lee was trying his hardest not to cry.

"Call me tonight when you get home from the party so I know you're safe!"

"I will!"

"And call me tomorrow after you run your errands- or during them if you get lonely!"

"I will, dad!" Lee choked against his father's chest. It was very much a choke, too. As much as his throat was struggling against the possibility of weeping, Lee's lungs were struggling against the possibility of collapsing.

Gai dropped a kiss onto his son's forehead and made an enthusiastic grunting sound that Lee's roommates hoped was an expression of love and not an accomplice to gas.

"Be safe, work hard, and call me if you need _anything_ ," Gai ordered, mouth still pressed against Lee's scalp. His own throat was fighting to keep its composure.

"I will dad, I promise!"

"I love you!"

"I love you, too!"

"Goodbye, my sweet Lee!"

"Bye, dad!" Lee echoed, as his father squeezed him so tightly he saw his life flash before his eyes.

Once he had finished threatening the structural integrity of his son's ribcage, Gai stepped back and tried to balance things out with an affectionate ruffle of the dark hair Lee had inherited from him.

"I will see you next Saturday!" he yelled, as though his child was not standing less than a foot away from him.

With a final loving pat of Lee's cheek, Gai gave a merry wave goodbye to the three teenagers, and left.

That went much better than it had last year.

Freshman Neji hadn't been sure what to expect from his roommate and had watched him somewhat suspiciously as he and his father moved things into the dorm. When the time for goodbyes had come the pair had sobbed so hysterically that Neji very nearly risked compromising the use of his ankles and fled out the window (the door was not a safe option with the crying beasts blocking the way – what if he got pulled into that mess).

But Neji had come around, to both of them. It took a few months for Neji to even _look_ at Lee tolerably, much less with kindness, and it was tense in the beginning. Or, tense at least for Neji. Lee was such a space cadet that Neji was never sure if Lee knew exactly how much he used to piss his roommate off. Particularly since the behavior Neji used to find so vexing had never really stopped.

Eventually Lee turned out to be a mostly excellent roommate. He woke up too early, made too much noise (all of the time), and was _always working out-_ but he was clean, he didn't mind folding laundry, and he had turned Neji onto the coconut conditioner that he and his dad credited their silky locks to.

Neji's hair had never smelled so good.

So when the time came to choose roommates and request housing assignments for the following year, neither of the boys even questioned if they would continue living together- they just wrote each other's names down.

But since the suites were given to groups of threes, Lee had someone in mind, and Neji could use someone else around the house to exchange exasperated glances with over Lee's constant noise, they brought someone else on board.

Tenten was Lee's best friend from childhood. They had met on a youth soccer team that Gai had volunteered to coach (because every time his kid expressed the slightest interest in any sport Gai would immediately volunteer to head up a rec team for it) and bonded over how bad they both were.

Lee had absolutely no talent for soccer. Tenten had absolutely no patience for soccer.

Truly, a friend-match made in heaven.

Even after their brief season ended, and Gai was able to sleep through the night without suffering nightmares of Lee telling him he wanted to play for another year, the two continued to spend time together.

They bonded over their basketball team, the youth softball league, the Konoha Kicks (which was the _worst_ suggestion that came out of the player's mouths when it was time to name the kickball team, but Lee had made it and the coach was the teensiest bit biased), the uproariously terrible wrestling league (where Lee was deemed too underweight to match even Tenten), then there was also a volleyball team, a swimming team, and then finally – _finally_ – a track team.

Every summer since Lee was four years old, Gai had stepped up and coached these teams. He'd been a star athlete when he was younger, and already coached three teams at the local high school. The parents in the town were so grateful to have something for their kids to do that was free, safe, and got them out of the house that no one ever complained about the chaos of the sports. The kids didn't mind, either.

But after the track team was formed there was no going back.

Lee was finally a _star_.

Really, Gai should have guessed earlier at what his son would excel in since Lee's usual contribution to a team was hard work and _running with limitless energy._ The first day, when Gai had the kids run a timed mile, and Lee shot up to his side not six minutes later – beaming and out of breath – Gai knew they'd struck gold.

Tenten ended up not loving track as much, claiming that the endless running was bad for her developing boobs, but after eight years she didn't need sports as a reason to hang out with Lee. They would be spending their summers together regardless of whether or not she found running to be mind-numbingly boring.

She found her own passions, taking on jewelry making. The things she could do with metal were incredible. Lee made the perfect model too since he liked shiny things and had little to no concern over whether or not wearing jewelry said anything about his masculinity.

The goofball buddies continued to stick to each other in college. Neji got to know Tenten during freshman year simply because of how much time she spent in their room. He appreciated that she was also clean, left his things alone, and kept Lee in line.

It was a full-time job and someone needed to do it.

And now, here the three of them were, facing boxes waiting to be unpacked, an empty fridge, and only a few hours before a party - but once the door shut behind Gai and Lee turned back to his friends, he laughed and yanked on their arms to pull them into a proper hug 'hello'.

ooooo

"Gaara, you _have_ to come!" Naruto yelled, pushing his face too close to his friend's and trying to make significant eye contact.

Gaara cared too much for Naruto to knock him out of the way, but he did find frowning and sidestepping the blonde intrusion to be an acceptable alternative.

"I don't see the appeal."

Naruto rolled his eyes and closed his jaw after he'd dropped it in a mock-offended pout when Gaara ignored him.

"Gaara, _buddy_ , did you even go to a single party in high school?"

A quick cast of the eyes and the stain of a frown answered him.

" _Gaaraaa_ – come on, man! This is going to be so much fun, I promise. There will be girls there-"

He missed the way Gaara snorted softly at that.

"- there will be drinks – look it's our first college party! You have to go- what if you meet someone?"

Naruto said all of this like it was everything one should want out of life and Gaara was going to miss out on the rest of his future if he chose not to attend. And it wasn't that he didn't know Gaara well, he was perfectly aware that his taciturn and introverted buddy would probably rather eat his own hand then go try to hook up with girls, but he wanted Gaara to have a fun year! Loosening up would probably do him a world of good.

"We've gotta get you laid, man," Naruto added through a cheeky grin, wiggling his eyebrows.

He could probably use that too.

But Gaara wasn't interested.

He gave his friend an amused, but decisively dismissive look before turning back to the box of delicate camera equipment he was carefully unpacking.

These tools were his babies.

Photography was Gaara's entire life. It was a great hobby for a child who always felt excluded and unwelcome. At least when he was taking photos it was _him_ making the choice to put a camera in between himself and the scene before him. He never acknowledged it as such, but photography let him beat others to the punch when it came to rejection.

He had spent all of middle and high school working on this art form, taking classes, messing with lenses, trying to pull beautiful shots out of mundane backdrops and bland scenery. It comforted him, to tuck himself away in the dark room and birth prints of the bright world above.

It gave him a lovely distraction from his own imagination, and it didn't hurt that he had become quite skilled.

"I think I'll pass, Naruto. I want to set up my studio tonight," he replied.

Naruto let out an exasperated growl. "Gaara – _Gaara_ – please! Look you don't even have to stay the whole time, just come for an _hour_."

Gaara looked up from the camera he was gingerly handling and stared at his friend.

Just as Naruto was beginning to feel uncomfortable and opened his mouth to tell Gaara never mind and sorry for bothering you please don't kill me, Gaara spoke first.

"Fine."

It sounded harsher than he meant it, and Naruto knew by now not to read into Gaara's tone. Variations were few and far between and Naruto wasn't one to overthink things as it was.

"Awesome! Alright – I have to call Lee and make sure we go to the right house and then I'll meet you in an hour out front so we can walk over?"

One hour from now would be seven o'clock.

Gaara didn't know much about college parties, but he could at least surmise that they did not begin at seven o'clock. But he fixed onto another part of Naruto's question.

"Who's Lee."

Oh, there you go again, Gaara. Using these words that should end in upward inflections but no more resemble a question than growling does.

Naruto had already pulled out his phone and was tapping away, so he missed Gaara's question and nearly peed his pants when he finally looked up and found his friend staring at him again.

"Gaara, we've talked about this-"

"Who's Lee," he repeated, sounding more impatient than he felt.

"Oh, Lee's an old buddy of mine from Konoha. We were on a couple of sports teams together. He's the sophomore who's getting us into this party," Naruto answered.

Gaara frowned again. It was a state his face was very comfortable in.

"Getting us in," he echoed.

Naruto was tapping away on his phone again.

Gaara stared.

Tap tap tap.

Stare.

Naruto looked up.

" _Dammit,_ Gaara! What did I _just_ -"

"Why do we need someone to get us into this party."

Gaara, it is rude to interrupt people.

"Well…" Naruto started, casting a glance down at the phone in his hand and tapping the home button as though he were checking for a message. "Technically it's a sophomore party… but I asked Lee if we could go and he said it was probably fine and besides we won't cause any trouble!"

He said the last bit rather quickly as though trying to skirt past something unpleasant he didn't want Gaara to call him out on.

"Naruto-"

But Naruto's little 'home button massage' must have butterfly effected whoever he was expecting to hear from because at that moment his screen lit up and loud music filled Gaara's small dorm room before Naruto snuffed it out with the 'answer' button.

"Hey, bushy brows! So are we good?"

Gaara shouldn't have been able to hear the response, because this person was speaking into a phone and Naruto didn't have him on speaker.

But apparently this was no ordinary person.

This was someone from Naruto's Corps. of incredibly loud people who don't seem to have respect for the functionality of nearby eardrums.

Gaara couldn't make out exactly what he was saying, not that he was trying to listen, so he took the opportunity to return to unpacking his surrogate children and their lenses.

Cameras were so wonderful.

The other day Gaara learned that he could stack gels on a mirror and his new lens would pick the reflection from a light and give his photos tints.

He wasn't sure what to do with that information at this moment, but he was still pleased with the discovery.

Naruto mumbled something into the phone and Gaara heard the man on the other end laugh.

It sounded so full and happy.

 _Gross_.

The noisy man must have said goodbye because Naruto gave his word to see him later and then stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

"Alright, smiley- out front in one hour. Dress cool and get ready to party!"

Gaara stared at the door for a full minute after it closed on Naruto's ass.

 _Smiley?_

ooooo

A/N: Yeah so reading this I went 'bitch this seems so familiar OH WAIT' b/c it's freakin just like artfp good god. This will be a slow-build, working up to the GaaLee, because slow-builds make my heart sing on pitch, and the rating will eventually change.

Thank you for reading!

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twitter handle: sandinmyeyebrow


	2. Lines, Colors, Smell, and Sound

ooooo

"You smell good, what is that?"

"It's soap, Naruto."

"It's nice…hey, let me get a hit of that-"

"It's soap!"

Shikamaru dodged his roommate's lunge toward him and scowled.

Did Naruto want to rub on him to share scents like cats?

 _Take a shower, man._

"Come on, I don't have time to shower!" Naruto protested, apparently able to read thoughts.

"What exactly do you think I can do for you?"

Naruto raised his hands behind his head and grinned sheepishly. "You must have cologne or something _manly_ hidden around here. Come on-" he started, edging closer and nudging at Shikamaru's arm with his elbow. "I'll bet you have a scent to get girls."

"Take a shower, Naruto."

Two hands flew towards the ceiling in exasperation. "Ah, you're no help. Fine – I'll ask Gaara if he has anything, even though I was _just at his place_."

Shikamaru snorted and raised an amused eyebrow at his friend. "I think Gaara will also vote for the shower."

"Don't pretend to know what Gaara will vote for. He's a wildcard," Naruto muttered back darkly as he typed off a hopeful message.

He really didn't want to shower.

"So he's coming tonight?" Shikamaru asked, absent-mindedly fingering the edge of one of the three shirts he'd unpacked in the last hour. He refused to indulge in the same level of worry over his outfit that Naruto harbored, but in spite of his better judgment he found himself questioning what he had on.

Naruto violently slammed the 'send' button and tossed his phone on the bed. "Hell yeah- but he's being a downer like you. I don't get it- _why_ don't you two want to meet girls?"

"Girls are a lot of work. We already have enough to think about with our new classes and adjusting to a new place, seeing where we fit in and learning how to behave like adults. I don't see how college students have time for dating," Shikamaru answered before taking what he'd just said to heart and abandoning his clothing dilemma. Such a silly thing to occupy his thoughts with when there were much more important things to focus on.

"Who said anything about dating."

Shikamaru snorted again. "I don't think Gaara's going to be interested in that."

Naruto's phone went off, interrupting the offended noise he let out at his roommate's statement. "Gaara doesn't know _what_ he wants," he answered. "That's why _I_ have to help hook him up with someone."

"What about Sakura?"

"How dare you."

"Look Naruto," Shikamaru said as he knocked his shirts off his bed and back on top of the box he'd pulled them out of originally. "If Gaara isn't interested in dating- or _sex_ ," he added when Naruto looked like he was going to interrupt. "Then you shouldn't push him. Getting involved in your friend's love life is troublesome. It never leads to anything good."

"Thank you for that terrible advice. But I think I know Gaara a bit better than you do, Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled. The volume was loud and the words were harsh, but he was grinning brightly, sure of himself and excited for it. "Trust me, all it takes it one girl and he won't want to turn back!"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Naruto and settled his hands behind his head, assuming a position like he was settling in for a nap. "How do you know? Have you been with a girl before?"

Naruto dropped his grin and stared at him for a moment before turning his chin up and heading for the door.

"Gaara doesn't own cologne so I have to go ask Kiba. Be ready to go at seven!"

The door shut on Shikamaru's knowing grin.

ooooo

By the time Gaara left to meet Naruto his roommate still hadn't arrived.

He balked at the idea of having to share such a small space with someone, and very seriously considered obtaining a doctor's note pledging that he had irritable bowel syndrome and ought to be given permission to live off campus, but his brother and sister thought the socialization would be good for him.

They were probably wrong, but whatever. It was more important to him to get along with them than it was to sleep in a room where he could guarantee no one would touch his things.

The race was _close_ , but his siblings were more important.

"Gaara you didn't change!" Naruto shrieked when he saw his friend step out from the building.

He looked down at himself and frowned.

What was wrong with what he was wearing?

Naruto read his expression and whined. " _Gaara_ , don't you want to look good tonight?"

"I don't look good?"

Gaara wasn't asking to be manipulative, it was a genuine question, and while Naruto was certainly no god of fashion with the bite to back up his bark, Gaara did respect his friend's opinion and looked down at his sandals with a twist in his brow.

But Naruto felt guilty. "No- I mean no! No! Oh my god, I'm trying to say you look fine, oh jeez you're wearing _sandals_ , no it's cool, I'll get girls to focus on your hair, you're having a good hair day- hey what are you using? Can I use some?"

Gaara began the same protest about not worrying what girls focused on just as another boy smacked the back of Naruto's head and ended his blabbering.

"Jeez knock it off, Naruto," Kiba growled, stuffing his hand back into his pocket. "You look fine man," he said to Gaara. "Let's just head over there before Naruto remembers some other grooming he forgot to do."

"I was supposed to groom?"

"Naruto!"

"Are we waiting for anyone else?" Shikamaru interrupted before they could go at it.

Kiba's fist stopped midway to the back of Naruto's head. "Shino is meeting us there, but do we have to wait for Chouji?"

Shikamaru shook his head and pulled out his phone to check for a message from his best friend. "He's eating dinner right now and said he would meet us there."

"Maybe we should get dinner too…" Kiba mumbled, dropping his fist and placing it open-palmed against his stomach as though he was trying to feel for hunger.

Naruto scowled at him. "We can't be late to the party!"

"Naruto it's _seven o'clock_. At this rate we will be the first people there."

"Yeah then we get first dibs on everyone!"

"That's not how it works!"

"How would you know?!"

And there go the fists again.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and tried to catch Gaara's attention. "Let's just go. If we wait for them to settle this then we'll be here all night."

Gaara nodded once and turned to follow Shikamaru.

It wasn't silent, not with Naruto and Kiba still bickering behind them, and they could have pretended to be listening to that ruckus instead of decidedly _not_ speaking to one another (a feigned comfortable silence), but silences around Gaara made Shikamaru feel tense. It itched at his usual comfortable stasis and general relaxed attitude.

Gaara actually was listening to the sniping behind him and barely registered that Shikamaru was there.

And yet, the peace of his attention was broken.

"So…" Shikamaru began, pausing until he saw Gaara's head look up from the corner of his eye. "You're studying photography, right?"

"Yes."

Gaara wasn't big on small talk.

Shikamaru waited for him to add to that glowing response, and then pursed his lips when nothing else came out. "That's… great… so… I heard you already got into one of the advanced classes?"

"Yes."

Such a chatty cat, that Gaara.

Fortunately for Shikamaru, Naruto had just slapped Kiba away and hurried up to walk in between his friends so he could join the conversation.

"That's right!" he answered, as though Shikamaru had aimed the question at him. "Mr. Fancy Pants here got into some special summer program and just finished the intro course."

Shikamaru was grateful for the exposition and the freedom from one-on-one Gaara time.

Gaara didn't see why this information was relevant to someone he barely knew.

"That's cool," Shikamaru said, nodding his head. "So you'll get your own studio this year?"

"Yes."

 _Good lord, Gaara._

Unlike Shikamaru, Naruto was too used to his friend's taciturn manner to take his clipped responses personally and cheerfully clapped him on the back. "He gets his own space _and_ he gets to take modeling this year."

Gaara frowned at that and gave Naruto his best 'I am simply unfazed by this particular fact' look.

"Ahh, photographing models!" Kiba finally piped in after he finished restoring the hairstyle he'd started the evening with and briefly surrendered to Naruto's attacks.

" _Nude_ models," Naruto added with a grin, elbowing Gaara's arm and ignoring the face he was making.

"What?!" Kiba snapped. "You get to take pictures of naked models!"

"They won't always be naked," Gaara answered in a flat voice.

"Well maybe you skip those days," Naruto muttered. "And maybe you let your _friend_ come and 'observe your work' on the other days!"

"Yeah, me too! Hook your friends up!" Kiba cheered, going for the same suggestive elbow nudge on Gaara's opposite arm from where Naruto kept his going.

Gaara turned to Kiba with his expression unchanged and made the boy's ass clench in fear.

"I mean you don't _have_ to-"

"There's no way they would let outside students come in and just _watch_ the models," Shikamaru interjected.

"Yeah maybe," Naruto growled back. "But," he said, turning his attention to Gaara again. "You can always show me the pictures, _right_?"

Gaara's face said that such a thing would not be happening.

"Isn't it kind of weird that photographers get to work with nude models?" Kiba asked. "I know they use them for _drawing_ but doesn't this have like total potential for creeps to get a hold of nude photos?"

"We don't shoot their faces," Gaara answered.

Shikamaru smirked. "Didn't you just ask if you could sit in and just _look_ at the models?"

Kiba narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Yeah but I wasn't gonna _take pictures_ of the guys – _that's_ where you gotta draw the line."

"The guys?"

"I meant- no! No-" Kiba stammered, turning red and looking horrified. "No I just meant- you know what shut up," he growled, reaching behind Gaara to smack Naruto, who apparently found this _amusing_.

Kiba was spared from any torment by a yell that was possibly excited? It could also have been early warning signs of constipation.

"This is the house!" Naruto shrieked as they approach an old, two-story home with no cars outside or signs of life inside.

The rest of the boys gave it a skeptical look and waited for Naruto to pick up on their problem.

"Naruto… we're here too early," Shikamaru said when it seemed like Naruto wasn't going to get there on his own.

"Nonsense," he answered with a dismissive wave. "I'm sure everyone's just _inside_ and quiet and-"

"Let's go eat something to kill time."

Naruto rounded on his roommate. "Eating is a terrible idea! It will make us sick!"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "No, dumbass, eating keeps you from getting sick when you drink. If you take shots on an empty stomach you're gonna blorch everywhere and embarrass us."

"You're the dumbass!"

"Let's eat something," Gaara interrupted.

Three heads turned and looked at him with surprised eyes, but it did shut Naruto up.

"Yeah, alright," he conceded with a pout.

Gaara was just being a good friend though, he didn't want Naruto to get sick and throw up and he _certainly_ wasn't eager to get to the party.

The group headed away from the house and off toward whatever restaurant Shikamaru had pulled up on his phone as Naruto decided to take the delay in his festivities to return to his bickering.

"So, Kiba – you wanna sit in with the guys?"

"Naruto!"

ooooo

When they returned to the house an hour later, it was more obvious that the party had started. For one thing _lights_ were actually turned on and nine out of ten times that makes it less likely that a group of teenagers are walking into a haunted house.

Gaara wasn't concerned about that other one out of ten. If this house full of college students was haunted, it was probably with the ghosts of sex-mistakes past.

From the moment they entered the residence everything was noise and smell and Gaara didn't like it. He was unconcerned that the disapproving scrunch on his face made him look unapproachable, and would have turned around and left immediately if Naruto wasn't excitedly tugging on his arm.

"This is so cool!" he whispered, as much as he was capable of whispering, excitedly.

"Hn."

Gaara's eyes were sweeping over the place, trying to take in this overload of entropy, as Naruto pulled him into the house.

This was a college party? Why was Naruto so desperate to go? There was nowhere to _sit_.

Naruto stopped them just outside the kitchen when the sound of voices coming through the front door made his ears perk up.

"That's Lee!" he declared before scurrying back, leaving Gaara standing there.

That was perfectly fine. Gaara had a nice little spot against the wall and if he continued to scowl then maybe no one would bother him.

"Naruto!" came a loud, happy voice from the other room. Gaara thought it sounded familiar.

"Lee! You finally made it!"

Ah, the phone guy.

"He was here before you were, Naruto."

That was a different voice.

Gaara could hear enthusiastic laughing and thumps he assumed were clapped on backs accompanying a hug as Naruto grumbled back, "Shikamaru made us get tacos," and then a much more enthusiastic, "Did you get beer?"

"Oh, no, I got ice…were people expecting me to get beer? I'm not twenty-one yet, but I suppose I could call someone-"

"No, Lee, calm down-" the unfamiliar voice interjected.

"I can leave right now and get food! People like food!"

"Who would you call?"

"Naruto, don't rile him up! Lee, it's fine, go put the ice in the kitchen and sit down."

"I don't want to disappoint everyone!"

"I can give you money-"

"Naruto!"

"Neji!"

"Ah!"

Gaara listened to this with a frown. What was wrong with this person?

He could hear footsteps coming towards him and looked up expectantly, inexplicably curious to see this man.

But someone who had already gotten into beer and clearly had too much of it thought this would be a delightful moment to bump into Gaara and splash their beverage onto his shoes.

 _Grrrrr_ -

He felt a rush of air pass his left side just as he was turning to glare at this interruption to his personal space, and when he harshly inhaled on an irritated huff he unintentionally grabbed the scent left behind by what must have been Lee hurrying into the kitchen with the ice.

Oh.

Lee smelled good.

"Oh, sorry," the drunk girl slurred to him, interrupting his confused sniffing. Her friend grabbed the girl's elbow to continue dragging her to wherever they had been headed before Gaara could give her a proper threatening look.

 _Rude_.

He looked down at his feet and scowled.

See – _this_ – is why he didn't like parties. Everything smelled like nail polish remover and bad breath and at any moment some inebriated fool could bump into you and ruin the pleasant dryness of your sandals.

His toes were going to be sticky.

Terrible.

Thank goodness he elected to keep his cameras at home, safely tucked away in their cases – nice and dry; swaddled like the babies they are.

He could have easily gone into a trance just thinking about his photography equipment, but the source of that nice, clean smell had finished its task in the kitchen and stepped back out into Gaara's line of sight.

 _Oh._

Gaara had studied art for as long as he could remember. Even before he was swept up in photography, he chased after the elective, wanting to learn more about pictures and shapes, and models and colors. His eye was trained to pay attention to the lines making up figures, and the way they moved through space and left their impression upon the world.

He was acutely aware that perspective shapes perception, and therefore art is subjective to each individual no matter how similarly minded. Gaara is also a firm believer that since the world happens to be made of color and shadows and full of angles and lines, that the _world_ is art, and it can be carefully sorted and compartmentalized by an artist's eye.

Others in the field would balk at the idea of wanting to organize and make sense of all that beauty, but giving labels and names to things helped Gaara make sense of what others seemed to understand and appreciate so naturally.

Photography allowed him to capture these things, take them home, and work them out in his own time. Taking and studying pictures kept him from a simultaneous meltdown from sensory overload, and maddening indifference.

Every time Gaara met a new person, the first thing he did was take in their art. He would study the particular shade of their hair, the flecks in their eyes, and the lines of their body. It wasn't sexual, it wasn't even really _interest_ , it was just an attempt to understand.

It was intense for most people, if they caught him looking, but Gaara was an intense guy.

Normally, when Gaara met someone new, he didn't have any frame of reference for what kind of picture they would bring to his life. With Lee, Gaara had collected a handful of facts: he was friends with Naruto, loud on the phone, a sophomore, not yet twenty-one, and left a pleasing scent in the air when he whooshed by.

(Gaara still hadn't worked out how scent and sound fit into art, but he tended to dismiss them in favor of the visual).

These facts were _nothing_ , though. They told Gaara nothing. He needed to _see_ in order to understand and now here this man was, standing in front of him.

Perspective shapes perception.

Appreciating beauty has always been a conscious effort. His body has never gone off on its own when his eyes take in a visual stimulus. Gaara's never laid eyes on something or someone in a perfectly neutral state and felt like his sympathetic nervous system might be activating. He doesn't have the frame of reference to recognize attraction when it's happening. He simply doesn't _know_ what it feels like – he's never thought to ask.

So he has no idea why when he looks up and his eyes meet Lee's for the first time, it's suddenly hard to breathe.

ooooo

A/N: Thank you for reading!


	3. Thirsty

A/N: This took so long to update, in short, because I'm garbage.

oooooo

Gaara's first thought was that he swallowed something.

People have difficulty breathing when they swallow things, so clearly he had inhaled an object and it was now obstructing his air passage.

The logical thing to do is cough as violently as possible to remove the object so that the lungs can continue about their business.

But a first attempt got him nothing and a follow up attempt with even more ab-power yielded the same results, Gaara decided that drinking water was a smart next step. To get water he needed to go into the kitchen, but as he turned his eyes back to the doorway and saw the same man still standing there who hadn't moved since Gaara's sudden, inexplicably loud inhale, and then watched him try to cough his insides out, Gaara realized that it wasn't just his lungs that weren't working properly.

The longer he stared at this other boy the more trouble his heart seemed to experience.

Gaara was a smart boy. He knew what this was.

Difficulty breathing? Heart palpitations? Sudden dry mouth? All of this occurring simultaneously at the precise moment that you _happen_ to see a person who _happens_ to have physical traits you don't even realize you're attracted to?

Gaara was having a heart attack.

It was unexpected, certainly, because he was young and in relatively good shape, but he supposed that younger people than him have had stranger cases of medical ailments. This was the way of things. Statistics are unreliable.

He turned his head to the side and placed a hand on the thumping in his chest as he thought over his short life.

 _His cameras_.

Someone was going to need to take care of them, they were young too.

He didn't have long to worry over them before a sudden woosh of air appeared before him and a warm hand was on his shoulder.

Oh no, as if the visual wasn't enough to send Gaara reeling now there was _touch_ , and he could smell Lee's soap and -

"Are you alright?" came a concerned voice, interrupting Gaara's musing.

\- and _sound_. This was too much.

He slowly turned his head and saw doorway boy – _you know his name, Gaara, call him Lee –_ he saw _Lee_ standing next to him with impossibly large eyes and a furrow in his-

Oh _wow_.

Gaara didn't have eyebrows of his own. He'd wondered before, while absentmindedly rubbing the bare space above his eyes, what it would be like to have them and if it would even really change anything about his appearance. He didn't wish for them, he didn't find them particularly special or handsome on others. But now, looking at Lee's, he understood. He wasn't sure _what_ , exactly, but he understood.

They were just so… so…

So _manly_.

His eyes moved a fraction lower to the thick, dark lashes framing the _roundest_ eyes Gaara had ever-

Oh it was hard to breathe again.

Gaara didn't realize it, but he'd never really closed his mouth and it wasn't until he heard his own breathing that he noticed he was _panting_ on Lee.

The discovery did nothing about his staring though. His eyes continued to rake over Lee's features – oh he would _kill_ for his camera right now. This was almost an extreme sensory overload. He needed to take some photos and sequester himself so he could process what on earth this new human was doing to him.

The hand over his heart tightened its clutch on his chest as the one on his shoulder did the same.

"Hey," Lee tried again, "Do you need to go to the hospital? I can carry you-"

Gaara's eyes were watching Lee's lips. He was aware that Lee was speaking English, it was aimed at him, he knew these words, he should respond – and yet –

"Oi, Gaara," Naruto started, reaching out to grab his friend's arm. "Quit staring at Lee. He was born with those eyebrows he can't help it."

That did the trick.

Gaara reluctantly tore his gaze off of Lee's face and looked down to where Naruto's hand was grasping his arm.

Just below where Lee was grasping his shoulder.

Lee had nice fingers.

So _long_ -

"Come on, let's get you a drink," Naruto snickered gleefully as he tugged Gaara out of Lee's hold and into the kitchen.

"I need some water," he heard himself saying. Oh well that was helpful, apparently he did still have the use of his voice.

"Water?! Gaara, _no_ we've talked about this," Naruto argued, worming around the mass of upperclassmen stuffed into the small space.

Perhaps they had, although Gaara couldn't recall an alcohol-specific conversation taking place over the course of their friendship, but that didn't change the cold, hard, parched _fact_ that if he didn't drink water before he saw Lee again then he would probably die.

"But hey," Naruto said, giving him a squeeze as he peered around people in search of drinks. "Look at you going up and introducing yourself to Lee all on your own! I knew you would like this party – he's a cool guy, a little weird – okay a _lot_ -"

"I didn't introduce myself to him," Gaara interrupted.

"You didn't?" Naruto answered, still distractedly looking around. "Oh well that was Lee, he's the one-"

"I know."

But his friend wasn't even listening. "Do you see the drinks anywhere-a _ha_!"

Naruto let out a conspiratorial 'hehe' when they made it to the back of the room with the table full of the treasure.

"Ooh, hoo hoo! So many to choose from!" he said, smacking his hands together and releasing his hold on Gaara.

There were indeed lots of drinks to choose from, but the only clear, uncarbonated beverage Gaara saw was inside a glass bottle with 'Smirnoff' on the label.

He wasn't fooled. That was not the Swedish word for water.

Fortunately for the dryness in his throat, Naruto was too distracted with the display of adult beverage sin to remember that he wanted Gaara to join him in an evening of debauchery.

"I'm going to get a water," Gaara said, because he wasn't just going to leave Naruto, but he didn't wait for a response before stepping away and moving toward the sink.

There were no cups readily available, and he wasn't above sticking his head under the faucet, but at this moment someone was bent over the sink spitting out the contents of an empty shot glass in their hand.

"Dude, you said it wasn't Jaeger!"

"Well I _lied_."

"Man!"

Gaara wanted no part of that.

Maybe he could just leave for a bit and walk to the store. Get some fresh air – yes, yes that would be good. That way he could be alone to process his thoughts without the pressure of-

Oh, dear.

He had stepped back into the room Naruto had originally pulled him through when the first entered the house. He wasn't surprised to see Shikamaru and Kiba, since they were likely waiting for Naruto to return, but _Lee_.

"Hnng."

Oh, that's lovely Gaara. Please, make that noise again.

Lee leapt up from where he'd been sitting down next to a man with hair even longer than Shikamaru's. The look of worry on his face was replaced with a kind smile, perhaps because Gaara was no longer _clutching his heart_ , but the crinkle in the corners of his eyes and the brilliance of his teeth was doing all sorts of things that Gaara needed water to deal with!

"Hey! Are you alright?"

He had just established in the kitchen that he was not, in fact, having a heart attack and he could use his voice. The appropriate response would be to say something along the lines of 'yes'.

Instead, Gaara settled on something else.

"You're Lee."

Well done, Gaara.

But where others might have frowned or found themselves taken aback at this awkward, thirsty man in his party sandals, Lee was simply flattered that someone knew his name.

He laughed at the statement and the palpitations in Gaara's heart suddenly appeared in his knees.

"Yes, and you must be Gaara!" Lee answered, thrusting out a hand to shake. It was the same hand Lee had put on his shoulder earlier.

His fingers were _so long_.

But once again Gaara, without realizing it, was ignoring Lee in favor of staring at him – his hand, specifically. His mind was marveling over all the veins and tiny scars he could see, but his face read like he had no intention of reciprocating Lee's gesture.

"Oh," Lee said, smiling a bit uncomfortably and closing his hand into a fist before pulling it back. "Sorry, I know not everyone likes shaking hands – that's just what my dad always told me to do," he continued, closing his eyes and smiling bashfully as he brought his hands together in front of him.

Oh no.

No Gaara hadn't intended for Lee to take the hand away.

Give your hand back, Lee.

The best way to return a handshake is to wait until the other person thinks you don't want to, takes their hand away, and then apologizes for the attempt – _then_ stick your own hand out and make them try again.

So that's what Gaara did.

Truthfully, he _didn't_ like shaking hands. He didn't like touching other people and he _really_ didn't like them touching him.

But Lee's hand was warm earlier, his fingers were long, and Gaara didn't know why, but he did want Lee to touch him again.

The same face other's might have had to the "you're Lee" opening line could have easily been welcome here as well, but Lee just laughed again and shook the hand that was offered to him without fuss.

"You didn't get a drink?"

Grammatically that wasn't a question, but Lee's inflection at the end made it sound that way and Gaara wanted to answer at least one question appropriately.

"I couldn't find water," he answered, lamely.

"Oh!" Lee's eyes lit up at that and he darted back to the couch he was sitting on. Gaara wasn't sure why that news made him happy, but a second later Lee reappeared with a plastic green bottle in his hand and a grin on his face. "You don't drink, either?" he asked.

Gaara frowned for a second before understanding Lee's meaning. "I'm just thirsty."

That happy smile didn't fade as Lee thrust the bottle forward like it was a medal. "Here! Please have some of my water, and don't worry I promise it's not secretly spiked with anything."

Gaara accepted the bottle with both hands, partly because it allowed him to brush Lee's fingers again, and partly because his arms felt weak.

 _What was happening to his body?_

He pulled the mouthpiece open and looked up at Lee expectantly, although what confirmation he was waiting for he couldn't explain.

But that _smile_. Lee nodded at him once as thought he did understand what Gaara was asking, and continued to beam.

It was distracting. Gaara nearly missed his mouth and dribbled water on himself because he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

Even when he did manage to successfully navigate the bottle to his mouth and started drinking he continued to stare.

And drink.

And stare.

Lee's smile didn't falter, but the people he came to the party with and the two other teens Lee came in with were now watching at the two of them with a canvas of confused and bewildered expressions.

Lee had said "please have _some_ " of the water. Whether it was a colloquialism or an actual request not to polish off the bottle, Gaara wasn't sure, but after the first two gulps when another person might have reached the socially acceptable 'some' limit, Gaara was still staring straight into Lee's eyes and forgot what he was doing.

So he continued to gulp until the bottle was empty.

As he stared at Lee.

"Is he trying to fight Lee?" Kiba muttered to Shikamaru out the side of his mouth.

When the bottle was empty, Gaara dropped his arm down by his side, held it there a moment, and then thrust it forward to Lee.

Here, again, the _appropriate_ thing to say would be something akin to 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry', but Gaara was not in his element here.

"I was thirsty."

 _Bravo_.

For the third time that evening, Lee simply laughed. "I'm happy to be able to help! Please excuse me, I'm just going to go refill this," he said politely before exiting.

Once the incredible distraction of Lee's body was no longer between Gaara and the rest of the people in the room, he had a clear view of all of their faces.

"What."

"That was weird, Gaara," Kiba muttered with a frown.

"What was weird?" Naruto asked, coming back with a plate full of plastic red cups that Gaara hoped he intended to share with others.

"Gaara just drank all of Lee's water."

"Is that a euphemism?"

"What is this?" Shikamaru asked after taking one of the cups and giving it a sniff. "Naruto, you didn't mix things together did you?"

"Hell yeah I did!" Naruto hollered, thrusting the last cup in Kiba's face before raising his own. "Here's to our first college party!"

He didn't wait for the rest of his friends to raise their glasses before he took a mighty gulp of his.

This group was good at synchronizing their expressions. The expectant look they all wore as they waited for Naruto's reaction looked practiced.

It took him a second after moving the cup away from his mouth and licking his lips to process what he just had.

"Wahh!" he shrieked, pointing at the cup accusatorially with his other hand. "This stuff is terrible! I'm supposed to drink this whole thing?!"

Shikamaru shook his head and put his own cup down. "You aren't supposed to mix random things together. It would taste better if you followed a recipe."

"What exactly did you put in this?" Tenten asked, giving the same cautious sniff to her cup.

Naruto frowned and held up his fingers one at a time. "Just like… one, four – everything that was in a glass bottle," he settled.

Everyone put their cups down.

"Guys, come on!"

"I'll get you a beer, Tenten," Neji said, rising from the couch.

"Thank you, Neji," she called after him. "You shouldn't drink that, Naruto. You'll be sick."

He waved his hand dismissively at her. "I'll be fine! I'm not a baby – besides, this is what college is all about so I might as well start getting good at it!"

"College is about learning-"

A loud chorus of yells calling for beer pong in the kitchen interrupted Tenten's solid advice and caused Naruto to whip around so fast he almost spilled some of his 'reason for hospital visit'.

"Ooh! Let's play!"

The group did as he requested and followed him back into the kitchen where Neji was looking for a paper towel to wipe off the rim of two beer cans and Lee was patiently waiting for his turn to use the sink.

Teams had already been formed and an unfamiliar face assured Naruto that he could play in the next round, but he still wanted to stay and watch. Tenten and Neji didn't share this interest and after telling Lee to join them when he was finished, returned to the quiet couch room.

Gaara wasn't especially interested in this game, but he did want to support Naruto and it was pure coincidence that where he was standing happened to face the sink and anyone who might be standing near it.

It was pure chance. It couldn't be helped.

No he couldn't _move_.

"So if they get the ball in the cup the other team has to drink it…" Naruto murmured, nodding somberly in understanding. "I see… I am going to be great at this!"

Gaara wished for the best for his friend, and was about to agree that Naruto would probably be very good at whatever he set his mind to, but someone dropped something next to the sink and Lee bent over to pick it up and…

He had to look away. He felt embarrassed even though there was no reason for it. The corners of his mouth were twitching like they wanted to rise and his cheeks felt hot.

He had _absolutely_ no idea what was happening to his body. Nothing like this had ever plagued him before.

Did everyone else in the room feel this way? Did it have something to do with the amount of people that were trapped in such a small space? Was it the smell of liquor or the obnoxious bass in his ears that was causing his heart to beat just as hard? Were all parties like this?

If so, then Gaara was never attending another. He didn't understand and he didn't like not understanding. It was frustrating.

He also didn't like that other people thought it was okay to get close to him and scream along with music and – was this dancing? Oh no was this girl trying to dance with _him_?

Abort.

"Naruto," he said quietly, leaning forward to get close enough to his friend's ear that he wouldn't have to yell. "It's very crowded in here, I'm going to step out."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto answered distractedly, not taking his eyes off of the game. "Lee is in that other room if you want to- OH!"

He interrupted himself to praise a particularly good shot and then completely lost sight of the conversation he was having with the poor friend he had dragged here in the first place.

Terrible.

But Gaara took his half-finished advice and carefully maneuvered out of the room without touching anyone else. Lee wasn't near the sink when Gaara looked so hopefully he was back on the couch with the long-haired man.

"We need a new vacuum," Gaara heard that man say as he stepped back into the room.

"What's wrong with the one your two had last year?" a girl with two buns in her hair asked as she finished taking a sip of her beer.

" _Someone,"_ hair-boy answered as he gave Lee a pointed look, "thought it would be a good idea to use it as a _weight_ and-"

"Say no more," the girl interrupted. "Okay so that settles one item, Lee is buying the vacuum."

Lee looked guilty, but there was a small smile on his face. "It was an accident, I promise – oh, Gaara! Hello!"

That brought a strange sense of awareness back to Gaara as he didn't realized he'd stopped walking the minute he saw Lee again, and just stood there staring at the three friends.

He nodded back and then continued his walk.

"Gaara these are my friends, my roommates actually, Tenten," he gestured to the girl sitting on the arm of the sofa on his right side. She offered him a friendly wave and smile, which Gaara returned with a stiff raise of his hand that felt unnatural. "And this is, Neji," Lee continued, motioning to the boy on his left. "This is Gaara, Naruto's friend from back home."

Gaara wasn't sure if he was supposed to say anything since he'd returned Tenten's greeting with his attempt at a wave, so he just said, "Yes."

"We were just discussing the things we need to get for our apartment," Lee explained kindly, so Gaara would feel welcome in their conversation. "Are you all settled into your dorm?"

He shook his head and tried very hard to remember that in conversations there were expectations of _responses_ and if Naruto wasn't here to remind him to stop staring at Lee then he probably _wouldn't_ so it was best not to start in the first place.

"Oh, don't worry. There's still time to get it done! If you need any assistance moving your furniture I would be more than happy to help," he offered with that same ridiculous smile.

What was going on here?

Did Naruto pay this man to be nice to Gaara? Did he foresee that he would be distracted by plastic aerial balls hurling toward cups of beer and anticipate that Gaara would need some other chaperone at this party?

These thoughts read on his face as a frown, and once again he forgot to answer in a timely manner.

Tenten and Neji looked at each other, behind Lee's head, each wondering who the hell this guy was. They were used to Lee being friendly to strangers, even at the expense of their social comfort, but this person was exceptionally awkward.

"…we also need groceries," Tenten supplied after twenty seconds of uncomfortable silence.

"…yes…Lee and I are going shopping for those tomorrow," Neji answered.

Their voices broke Gaara out of his frowning trance and he looked down at his lap, feeling irritated.

Gaara would have been perfectly happy to sit there silently and listen in on the conversation they were having when he walked in. He couldn't help that he had poor social skills and generally needed more time to adjust to new surroundings and new people than others did. If Lee insisted on talking to him then that was on him.

But Lee hadn't batted an eyelash at Gaara's stares or his frowning. He continued to smile happily, genuinely, and then took a sip of his water.

"Did you look at our list to see if there's anything you want to add?" Lee asked, turning his big eyes to his friend.

Tenten took another sip and nodded. "Yeah, could you grab some tampons and shaving cream?"

"Of course! Oh that reminds me, Neji would you add bananas to the list, please?" he asked, turning around in time to see the disgusted face Neji made at Tenten's request.

"Why did that remind you to get bananas?"

Lee was relieved from having to answer by a loud sigh as Naruto appeared again.

"I have to wait _another_ round to play. Those dirty sophomores said they get to go first since they actually _paid_ for the beer," he grumbled.

Shikamaru came to stand next to his friend, shaking his head. "That's not unreasonable, Naruto."

"Bah. Hey Neji, your cousin is here – I just saw her," Naruto said, changing the subject from the horrid injustice he'd suffered.

Neji sat bolt upright. "Hinata is here? Where?" he demanded.

Naruto gestured vaguely behind him and leaned to the side to avoid Neji barreling into him as he took off in that direction.

"Gaara, sit down, it's weird that you're just standing there," Naruto grumbled, pushing his friend into the seat Neji had just vacated.

Right next to Lee.

Gaara inhaled sharply and shot his friend a look for the mistreatment, but Naruto was reaching for one of the chairs in the room and pulling it closer to the couch so he missed it.

Lee held out his water bottle again, offering to Gaara, and this time Gaara remembered to mutter, 'thank you,' when he accepted it.

He was about to take a drink when a thought suddenly struck him.

 _Lee's lips have been here_.

Normally that would disgust Gaara. He did _not_ share things with people if that involved an exchange of germs.

But… he'd already done it earlier this evening.

And now that he was sitting close enough to feel the warmth of Lee's body and their arms were almost touching and it was so hard not to look at him…

Gaara was thirsty again.

He behaved himself this time, only taking a few sips and refraining from staring at Lee while he did so.

But looking down instead meant that he could see Lee's legs.

How had he not noticed those before?

He quickly capped the bottle and handed it back before he could distract himself into finishing it again.

"So, you're a photographer?" Lee asked, shifting a bit so he could properly face Gaara and address him politely.

Cerulean eyes followed the movement, slowly roaming up from where they were studying the bend of Lee's knees underneath his worn jeans.

He intended to nod and end the conversation there, but once he found himself staring, in his delightful Gaara fashion, at a face he found so visually stimulating that he couldn't believe his attention had been drawn away long enough to wonder over the curve of bones and the stretch of muscle hidden in Lee's pants instead of the curve of this nose and the way it danced up to rest between such dark eyes-

Gaara forgot to answer.

He forgot anything was even asked of him, and continued to study Lee's features. It wasn't until Naruto elbowed his side and said, "Gaara your mouth is open," that he remembered he was in a room occupying space with others.

He just grunted and closed his mouth before nodding once.

Naruto was a second away from apologizing for Gaara's lack of tact when Lee smiled that wonderful smile again.

"Amazing! Do you have any of your work on you?" he asked, shifting closer to Gaara the slightest bit as he nodded once with his head towards where he must have believed Gaara was keeping a stash of photographs taped to his belly.

Gaara looked down at his stomach and shook his head. "I didn't bring my cameras."

"Oh, no, I thought-" Lee laughed, interrupting himself, and Gaara's eyes immediately moved back up to the source of that pleasant sound. Had the music lulled at that precise moment coincidentally or did Lee happen to laugh at the precise right pitch to cut through the background jabber and get his voice straight to Gaara's ears. "Do you have any pictures on your phone?"

"I don't use my phone for photography," he answered bluntly, and trying to avoid looking at Lee's eyes again.

He had the brightest eyes Gaara had ever seen, but their color was so dark. He didn't understand- was it the lighting? _He needed to take pictures_.

"I see," Lee answered, nodding. "Do you usually carry a camera with you, then? When you're out and about?"

 _Out and about_.

"Gaara's got a fancy studio," Naruto interjected.

Lee raised his eyebrows, impressed. "How neat!"

 _Neat_.

Was Lee from the 1950's?

"He's good. That's why they let him into the advanced class."

Gaara's cheeks flushed again, but this time he knew why. He didn't often receive praise from others, and to get it from Naruto, whom he respected to deeply – Gaara liked it.

"I believe you!" Lee replied, cheerfully. "I would love to see your work sometime."

Naruto was here now… so the theory about him paying Lee to be nice to Gaara need no longer apply… and yet – he seemed so genuine with his words.

Gaara didn't understand.

But he appreciated this too. "Sure…" he tried, uncertain of himself. "Anytime," he added quietly.

Naruto closed one eye and gave him a nod of approval before turning his attention to his other friend. "Lee, have you started practice yet?"

"Oh, yes! The first meet is in two weeks so I've been training all summer!"

"I'm pretty sure you've been 'training' nonstop since we were in middle school. I meant has the team started practice," Naruto corrected with a cheeky smirk.

Lee took another sip of his water and missed Gaara watching him do it. "It may just be me this year, everyone else graduated."

Naruto leaned forward so fast his drink nearly spilled again. "What?! So you're all alone on the track team?"

Oh, Lee was a runner.

Gaara's eyes immediately returned to Lee's legs.

"I made a flyer to get some new members, but the first practice is on Monday so I won't know until then," Lee answered with a shrug. "It's alright if it's just me, though. I will do my best to make the school proud and leave a good reputation for future generations on the team!"

"Hey, Naruto!" came a voice from the kitchen. "You're up!"

"Heh – yeah! My time to shine!" Naruto declared, nearly knocking the chair over when he stood up.

"That was fast…" Shikamaru grumbled, following his friend.

"Actually, Lee," Tenten said, rising from the arm of the couch and stretching out her limbs. "I think I'll play too, show these boys how it's done."

"Best of luck, Tenten!" Lee cheered, going so far as to salute her when she left.

Gaara blinked and took his eyes away from Lee's knee when he realized what had just happened.

He and Lee were alone in the room together.

 _All right, Gaara. Be sociable. Do it for Naruto. Don't stare. Do not stare. Do. Not. St-_

"So did you do anything fun over the summer?"

 _Dammit_.

It was a perfectly harmless question, but Gaara made the mistake of _looking_ at Lee when he asked it and now-

 _ **Do. Not. Stare**_.

He forced himself to look down at his knees and nodded. "I took photography classes."

"How interesting! What kinds of things did you do?"

' _We took pictures_ ' was the first thing that popped into his brain, but Gaara held that in.

"We worked with different equipment, and reviewed processing techniques… it was mostly introductory information," he explained, eyes still glaring at his own lap.

"So now you're in the advanced classes?" Lee asked, maintaining his polite attention on Gaara's face even though eye contact was not forthcoming.

Gaara nodded. "Yes."

"That's really cool! You've applied yourself and worked hard and now you are ahead of the other freshman!" Lee said, making an excited fist with one hand and unintentionally drawing Gaara's attention from his knees.

Why was this man so excited for him?

"Yes…" he started. He wanted to be good, he wanted to make Naruto proud, so Gaara did something he usually avoided at all costs:

He tried to make conversation.

"So…you're on the track team?"

"Yes!" Lee answered, and Gaara could hear the excitement in his voice. "I've been doing track for years, my dad was my coach in high school, so I'm very happy to be on the team in college as well."

"It sounds like there wouldn't be a team without you," Gaara replied.

"Oh, that's very kind of you but really I'm just - oh wait, you mean because I'm the only one on the team…"

Gaara allowed himself to look at Lee after hearing that. Lee's lips were twisted in an uncomfortable sort of grimace and his cheeks looked a bit pink as though he were embarrassed…

Wait a minute.

Had Gaara found someone just as awkward as him?

Unfortunately, because Gaara was not good at diffusing awkward silences, he wasn't sure of what to say in response.

But apparently Lee was ready to barrel on.

"Any chance you're interested in joining the team?" he asked with a grin, though the pink tinge on his cheeks remained.

Gaara almost laughed.

He _hated_ running.

"Athletics are not my…strong suit," he answered, choosing his words carefully to avoid offending Lee. "I think I will be kept busy with photography."

Lee smiled again and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh yes, that makes sense… but if you ever change your mind!" he added before laughing awkwardly and trailing off.

There was a pregnant pause and then both boys said "-so-" before jerking like they'd been struck with electricity and pausing so the other could continue speaking.

Gaara really needed Lee to be the one to keep talking. He wasn't sure what to say and was about to ask Lee what he had for dinner.

But Lee was the most polite teenager in the world and couldn't imagine speaking before he gave Gaara the chance to do so.

It left both of them staring expectantly at each other before an excited roar from the kitchen startled them both again and left Lee laughing.

"Sounds like they're having fun," he said.

"Why aren't you drinking?" Gaara asked, grateful that his brain supplied a question and jumping on it before he could consider that it might be too personal for someone to discuss at a first meeting.

Lee didn't seem offended, though. He looked down at the bottle in his hand and then up at Gaara. "I'm not twenty-one yet," he stated simply.

Gaara was surprised by that answer, but respected it. "Naruto's even younger than you and he's drinking."

"Ah, yes, well – it's certainly not my place to tell my friends what to do… but for me, personally, I don't want to disappoint my dad."

Gaara was even more surprised by this bit of information. He'd had a terrible relationship with his father and couldn't imagine sparing even a fraction of his concern over whether or not he disappointed that man.

"Your father is important to you?" he asked, reasoning that this sounded better than 'you actually like your dad?'

Lee's whole face lit up and answered Gaara's question before his voice could. "My dad is the most important person in my life! He raised me on his own so it's just been the two of us my whole life. We do everything together! In fact he only dropped me off a few hours ago but I already miss him terribly."

Gaara didn't understand that at all. He'd never known a single person in his life that had a good relationship with their father.

"Oh…that's…congratulations…"

He probably could have come up with something better, but he was already uncomfortable with talking to others and that _really_ threw him for a loop so-

"Thank you!"

But sweet Lee wasn't bothered.

There was another pause before Gaara spoke up again.

"I have two siblings."

He was worried that with the way this conversation was heading that the topic of his own father would come up, and Gaara wasn't interested in discussing that, but if he changed the subject on his own…

"Oh how lovely! Are they older or younger than you?"

"Older. They're both students here, actually. My sister, Temari, is a senior, and my brother, Kankuro, is a junior," Gaara answered.

"Temari…" Lee murmured, brows furrowing in concentration. "Is she on the tennis team?"

Gaara frowned and nodded. How did Lee know that?

"Oh, she's wonderful!" Lee chirped. "I mean, I've never met her, but she has all sorts of awards and records – I know the school is very proud to have her."

Gaara felt a flush of pride at that and made a mental note to tell his sister what this kind stranger said.

"What does your brother do?"

"He's studying Japanese puppet theatre," Gaara answered.

"Oh, how interesting!"

"It's not," Gaara corrected.

Lee laughed _very_ hard at that. "Really? Does he just study or is he a performer as well?"

Gaara closed his eyes and sighed. "He's tried to write one-man shows before, but Bunraku requires two puppet masters."

"Oh no!" Lee cried, sounding genuinely horrified at this predicament. "Is there no one else he can partner with?"

"There is one other student studying puppet theatre, but my brother dislikes him," Gaara answered.

"That's a shame. I'm sorry he's having trouble expressing himself," Lee murmured.

Gaara frowned. He hadn't thought of it that way. Kankuro loved his freaky puppets and it _did_ make him crazy that he his stage partner always controlled what they did and how they did it, but Gaara never thought to put his brother's situation like that.

If someone compromised Gaara's photography… he would feel the same way.

"If I didn't get along with a track partner I know I would feel very frustrated," Lee said not a second after Gaara thought the same thing.

He was so pleasantly surprised to find himself sharing the same thought as someone else at the same time that he smiled without realizing it. Gaara looked up into Lee's earnest eyes, and smiled.

It didn't fit the tone of their discussion, but Lee had already established that he wasn't put-off by Gaara's social eccentricities and he smiled right back.

Oh no.

That was too much.

Gaara had been doing so well but this was not – it was hard to breathe again. Had his heart actually calmed down at any point during the night?

Lee's attention was pulled away by whatever song came on next and he looked up at the ceiling with his smile still there. Clearly he liked what he was hearing, and he began nodding along with the beat before turning back to Gaara.

Who was still staring stupidly at him.

"All right… I need to eat something." Naruto groaned, coming back into the room and immediately collapsing on the sofa and half on Lee.

"You ate seven tacos before we came here," Shikamaru replied with a smirk.

"Oh, _tacos_ ," Naruto moaned, turned to drape his plastered ass completely on his friend so he was moaning the word against a very confused Lee's chest.

"Should we go somewhere and get him food?" Lee asked, blinking up at Shikamaru and Kiba since they were the ones playing the drinking game with Naruto.

"Yeah, probably," Kiba answered with a yawn.

Tenten and Neji appeared behind him.

"I could eat some tacos," Tenten said, pressing a hand to her stomach. "Kicking their asses made me hungry."

Lee grinned at her and then looked at Gaara again. "Gaara, you're coming too, right?"

He nodded and was grateful to already be sitting when Lee smiled at him again. It made him feel dizzy.

The group half walked, half dragged Naruto to the door and as Gaara reached back to close it behind them, his fingers brushed Lee's since they were moving to do the same thing.

It was only a second of contact, and it was purely by accident, but it left him feeling short of breath and flushed again. If he hadn't been so quick to withdraw his hand and hide his face then he might have noticed he wasn't the only one reacting to their touch.

Lee was blushing too.

oooooo

A/N: Thank you for reading! :)


	4. Advice, Assignments, Tacos & Burgers

They ended up going to the same taco truck.

The two friends, Shino and Chouji, they were meant to meet at the party skipped it entirely and met them for food instead.

With tacos in hand, the group decided to enjoy their feast at the nearby park. This way they could just drape Naruto over a table and leave him be without having to stop him from continually trying to order irresponsible quantities of tacos – since that seemed to be his plan.

Gaara was going to sit with his inebriated friend, but Lee went and sat down on a swing.

And Gaara also wanted to sit next to Lee…

His feet made the decision for him, and once they were lifted a few inches off the ground and his bottom was resting on a thin strip of rubber he turned and saw Lee smiling at him.

"Did you already finish your tacos?" Lee asked, seeing that Gaara wasn't holding any.

He shook his head. "I didn't get any."

Lee looked horrified by such a statement. "Oh goodness! Here! Please have some of mine!" he said quickly – holding out the three tacos he'd got.

Gaara looked down at the offering and then up at Lee. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you like even one bite?" Lee asked, eyes wide.

"We had tacos earlier. I'm still full."

Lee deflated a bit and took his arms back. "Well if you change your mind please tell me! I would be happy to share."

Gaara nodded and lightly kicked out to move his swing a bit before ceasing his motions completely.

"I'll have to run these off tomorrow. I had a big lunch today as well," Lee said after swallowing a mouthful of Mexican food.

Gaara turned and looked at him. "What did you have for lunch?"

Lee wiped something from the corner of his mouth. "My dad and I got curry. Since he dropped me off today we were having a good luck this semester feast," he answered.

"You made a feast out of curry?"

"Oh we ate a _lot_ of curry," Lee said seriously before taking another bite.

The familiar unwelcome tug at the corner of his lips was itching again.

Sitting here on the swings and watching Lee eat would have been fine to Gaara, but he didn't want Lee to think he had lost interest in their conversation, so he forged on.

"How long will you have to run after the tacos?"

Lee laughed and nearly choked. "I'll just add three miles to my regular training."

"What's your regular training?"

"Between five and eight miles."

That sounded _horrible_. Gaara wasn't interested in running in any capacity, but _eight_ miles? Had no one told Lee about walking? Or sitting still? It's great.

"That's a lot."

Lee smiled. "It's not so bad! I love running. I actually prefer sprinting, I'm trying to make myself go faster, but stamina is important. And I have an important meet coming up in two weeks so I need to be training hard!"

"Why is it important?" Gaara asked, getting much better at this 'conversation' business.

"I'm competing in a new bracket this year, and if I place at this meet then I have a chance to qualify for regionals!" Lee said proudly, turning and beaming at Gaara.

It was dark, but Lee was shining.

"And I want to make my dad proud so I must qualify!"

Gaara new nothing about track, and had no idea if Lee was fast enough to place, but with the determination and ferocity coming out of this man beside him – Gaara knew which horse he'd bet on.

"Are you sure you don't want a bite before I finish this?" Lee asked, holding up the last taco.

He wasn't hungry, and really he didn't need a bite – but the same thought about the water bottle occurred to Gaara once more.

 _Lee's lips have touched this_.

Perhaps for the rest of the evening he should just abandon trying to figure out why he was have such bizarre thoughts and physiological reactions to Lee and the things he said and did and he should just embrace tonight as a folly of sorts. He would return to normal in the morning.

But for now, with only a few bites of a taco left, when Lee's mouth had already been wrapped around it…

Gaara nodded.

Lee smiled and reached forward, possibly intending to hand the taco to Gaara, but he moved to quickly and too far and held it up to Gaara's mouth instead.

Gaara reflexively put his hands on top of Lee's to steady (and possibly stop him from smacking Gaara in the face with the taco), and felt warmth bloom low in his belly.

Lee didn't take his hands off the taco, and Gaara didn't take his hands off of Lee's.

He probably didn't need to make eye contact with Lee while he took a bite of it, and Lee didn't need to linger there and watched him chew and swallow it with parted lips – but this was folly night, after all.

Gaara was done questioning. So he paid no mind to the way his heart hammered away in his chest, or how lovely and warm Lee's hands had felt.

He focused on the taco.

oooooo

The groups split up after the park when it became clear that Naruto really needed to get to bed.

Neji, Tenten, and Lee lived on the opposite side of campus and would have been out of the way for everyone else.

Gaara would have been content to take the long way home if that meant he could spend more time with Lee, but he certainly wasn't going to put Naruto out when he seemed so desperate to get home.

It seemed like Kiba had a good hold on Naruto, but Gaara walked beside him for moral support.

"That was fun," Naruto murmured.

Kiba snorted and shifted to keep his grip on his friend. "I think you had a little too much fun, man."

"No such thing, Kiba!"

"Don't get worked up, Naruto. We're almost home," Shikamaru warned with a grin.

"Gaara!" a voice called out.

He turned to see his siblings walking toward them.

"Hello," he said once they were close enough that shouting wasn't necessary.

"What are you guys up to?" his older brother asked, taking in the sight of the group before him.

"We are on our way home right now," Gaara answered.

"Is he drunk?" Temari asked, nodding at Naruto.

Gaara nodded.

"We're coming from a party," Kiba explained.

Kankuro turned to look at him and continued to stare at him in a way that suggested such a thing was a family trait he shared with his brother instead of it being a quirk of Gaara's.

"You went to a party?" Temari repeated in disbelief.

"He didn't do anything unsavory," Shikamaru said.

Temari then gave him the same stare.

Maybe it _was_ a family thing.

"But now we need to get him into bed. Shino, you wanna help me out?" Kiba said as he almost lost his grip on Naruto.

His best friend silently took Naruto's other arm and draped it over his shoulders to lighten the load.

"Gaara, we're gonna take him back to his dorm."

Gaara frowned. He would have liked to make sure Naruto returned home safely, but this were his friends and Naruto trusted them.

"He'll be fine, we'll get him to bed," Shikamaru interjected, frowning at his friend and poking Naruto's cheek like he was checking to see if he was still alive.

"Alright then."

As the group dragged Naruto away, Gaara turned back to his siblings.

Temari folded her arms and smirked at her little brother. "Look at that, our little brother is all grown up and going to college parties," she teased.

"I didn't want to go."

His sister laughed and uncrossed her arms. "It's good that you went, Gaara. Parties are generally overrated, but every once in a while it's good to go out."

He nodded once, to show that he was listening, not that he agreed.

"Did you meet anyone cool?" Kankuro asked, playfully elbowing his side the way Naruto had earlier in the evening.

Gaara frowned at the motion. "Yes."

Both his sibling's jaws dropped.

"Like a lady?!" Kankuro pressed.

"No."

That deflated his brother a bit, but Temari was undeterred.

"A handsome man?"

Ohh – that made sense. He thought Lee was _handsome_. That explained why he thought Lee was pleasing to look at, at least. There was one thing he could cross off his mental checklist of the evening's confusions. Handsome = aesthetically pleasing. It was purely an artistic appreciation of a fine example of the human specimen.

Others might have taken Gaara's silence as an embarrassed confirmation, but Temari and Kankuro knew their little brother well enough to recognize his mental processing for what it was. They waited patiently until Gaara returned to their conversation and nodded.

Kankuro gaped like a fish. "You-!"

"That's great, Gaara. We're really happy for you," Temari interrupted.

Gaara frowned at them. "Why?"

Meeting someone handsome was not an accomplishment. Unless they thought Gaara was, for some reason, unlikely to associate with handsome people; in which case, that's awfully rude, Temari.

His siblings spared a brief glance at each other before turning their own confused frowns to the youngest of their pack.

"Are you not interested in this handsome man?"

Gaara considered this for a moment. "He is an interesting person."

Kankuro exasperatedly pressed his hand to his eyes and sighed as Temari waved a dismissive hand.

"No, we mean – are you interested in dating him?"

This again? Did the few people in Gaara's life get together and have a secret meeting to discuss his need to date someone?

"I'm not interested in dating anyone. I'm focused on photography."

Kankuro looked at him between his fingers. "Gaara, you can enjoy your hobbies and still date someone."

"If he doesn't want to he doesn't have to," Temari countered.

"I never said he _had_ to I'm just telling him that photography and dating aren't mutually exclusive," Kankuro replied, taking a beat between 'mutually' and 'exclusive' to annoy his sister.

Gaara just stared at them.

"It's good that he wants to focus on his studies. There's no need to rush into dating your first week at college," Temari continued, and while the advice sounded like it was meant for Gaara her attention was fixed on her other little brother.

Kankuro folded his arms and smirked in the way that younger siblings do when you've finally said something they've been waiting to hear.

"So then you won't be asking out that Shikamaru kid? You thought he was cute, right?"

Temari made a face Gaara had never seen his sister make before, but immediately he knew two things: she was embarrassed, and Kankuro was right.

"Fuck off, Kankuro."

Gaara had heard them speak to each other this way enough to know that while the words sounded harsh, they weren't meant that way. Although Gaara refrained from such language, and his siblings generally excluded it from their addresses to him, he knew that they weren't actually trying to be ugly to each other when they used it. It was just how siblings spoke.

Or perhaps others didn't. Gaara hadn't observed many other siblings.

"Ha! See? Dating's not such a bad idea, right?"

Temari glared at him. "Look, Gaara," she said, turning her attention back to her other brother. "All I'm saying is that it's perfectly fine if you don't want to date anyone right now. There's no need to listen to Kankuro. He's wrong about most things."

That wasn't true, but Gaara had heard her make this joke before, and after pointing out her mistake the first time he had since learned that she only meant it in jest.

Kankuro slung an arm around his sister's shoulders and grinned. "I'm just messing with you, Tem. I think it's great that you want to help out a freshman like that. He's probably never had someone this old think he was hot."

Temari swatted him off and scowled. "I do not think he's hot! Shut your mouth."

Her words may as well have been spoken in another language for all the attention Kankuro was paying them. He was doubled over laughing at her expression.

"Gaara. Why don't the three of us, or maybe just the two of us, have dinner tomorrow night? There are some great restaurants around campus and I want to hear more about this party," Temari suggested, punching her laughing brother when he wouldn't stop.

"Sure."

Kankuro swung out of the way to avoid another smack and finally caught his breath. "Yeah, I want to hear more about this handsome man you don't want to date."

"Great! Then it's Kankuro's treat. I'll text you tomorrow okay?" she said, ignoring Kankuro's 'hey what'.

Gaara nodded at her.

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Gaara. Get some sleep," Temari advised sagely.

"See you, buddy," Kankuro added, holding up his hand for a high five.

Gaara wasn't sure why his brother did this, but he appreciated it every time.

"Bye, guys," he said.

He wasn't sure what else he could tell them about the party that they hadn't already heard from Naruto and his friends, and he really had no idea what to say about Lee. It didn't make sense for Kankuro to be interested in someone he had never met and probably would never meet.

But perhaps they would meet.

Maybe one day the four of them could have dinner together. That would be nice.

This happy thought distracted Gaara from the time he left to head to his dorm to the time he got under his covers with his pj's on and his teeth brushed.

He went to sleep with a smile.

oooooo

"That was fun, but man Naruto is terrible at beer pong," Tenten grumbled as she collapsed on their couch.

Neji sat down in the chair in a much more elegant, composed manner and nodded. "At least he didn't get sick on anyone."

Tenten turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "Did you think that was a possibility?"

"It occurred to me, yes."

Lee emerged from his bedroom wearing his pajamas and leapt over the back of the couch to see on the end opposite Tenten, grinning like a fool.

"You look happy," Neji pointed out.

Lee gave a coy shrug and reached over the edge of the cushion he was sitting on to play with some frayed strings. "I just had a good night, that's all."

Tenten kicked him playfully. "I'll say – you spent the entire evening talking to that guy."

"What guy?"

Tenten sighed and gave her other roommate a look. Honestly, boys were so _clueless_.

"Neji. Who was Lee sitting next to – the _entire_ night."

"Ah, yes. Gaara."

They both turned their attention to Lee and finally noticed that he was blushing furiously.

"Well would you look at this smitten kitten?" Tenten teased, lightly kicking her friend again.

There was no point in denying this, since Lee was smiling so stupidly and blushing so hard, but he did hide his face.

"I'm just teasing you, Lee," Tenten laughed. "It's perfectly fine to think someone's cute."

 _Cute_ seemed like a very aggressive understatement in Lee's opinion, and he was about to correct his roommate on this egregious miscalculation on her part when his other roommate piped up.

"As long as you aren't planning on doing anything about it."

Lee's face abandoned it's childish blushing and switched to a wide-eyed blink. "Huh?"

Neji leaned forward and brought his hands together the way he sometimes did when he was about to say something serious.

"Lee, he's a freshman, and you're a sophomore. It wouldn't be right."

Oh dear, Lee hadn't considered that.

Tenten turned around to scowl at Neji. "That doesn't matter! There are plenty of freshman who date sophomores – it's only a year age gap," she insisted.

"A year gap is less noticeable when it concerns two upperclassmen, but Gaara has only been in college for one day. It would be wrong to take advantage of his naïveté," Neji countered.

Tenten didn't give Lee a chance to say anything. "Lee isn't taking advantage of anyone – and he's equally naïve."

Did they forget he was sitting right here?

"If anything, they shouldn't date because they've only known each other for one night and we don't want a repeat of what happened last year," she continued.

"I won't make the same mistakes again!" Lee protested.

"Good. Then you agree that it would be wrong to date him," Neji said with a nod.

That's not exactly –

Tenten sighed again. "Lee, _I_ don't think it's wrong to date him, I just think you need to wait. Probably a long time."

Lee pouted and his expression softened. "How long is a long time?"

"At least a year," Neji answered without missing a beat.

"A year?!"

"Ignore him," Tenten interrupted. "But, I don't know probably at least a month. I mean – I think Neji's acting like a conservative grandpa over here, but he does have a point that Gaara is new to college and he probably has a lot to figure out without adding a boyfriend into the mix."

Although what she was saying was technically not good news, hearing Gaara described as his possible 'boyfriend' did make Lee flush.

"And besides," she continued, "You remember how skeevy upperclassman can be. Maybe he already has reservations about it. You should take extra time so he can see you aren't like that."

Lee nodded and frowned.

Tenten was right, and for other people perhaps they wouldn't even need this council and wouldn't consider asking someone to be their boyfriend after just a few hours of conversation.

But Rock Lee was not other people!

He dove into things head first and usually without checking the temperature of the water before hand. It was the same passion that made him so fun to be around and such a devoted friend, but it went hand in hand with recklessness that aided in Lee getting his heart hurt last year – and neither Neji nor Tenten wanted to see that again.

"I am not a grandpa."

Lee smiled and looked up at his offended friend.

"I don't know, Neji – you do eat a lot of fiber," Tenten muttered.

"Fiber is good for you! It's necessary for healthy digestion!" Lee added helpfully with a laugh.

"Not the amount he eats."

Neji took a very long time in the bathroom to punish Tenten for her rudeness, or possibly because of the fiber. But after everyone was cleaned up and ready for bed, Lee laid down and immediately began fantasizing.

He was going to be so respectful and cool-headed and not at all spazzy – he would absolutely prove himself worthy to Gaara!

Tomorrow he would have to call his dad and get his advice as well. His dad was the smartest and coolest person he knew – he would surely know what to do!

Lee wrapped his arms around in pillow and squeezed it in the way people who really really want someone to spoon with do.

He would be a gentleman for Gaara. He would prove himself. He would listen to his wise, helpful friends who loved him and he would fight his natural instincts and not call Gaara at one in the morning and ask him if he would like to get breakfast tomorrow and possibly go to the park to hold hands afterwards.

He dreamed that he did it anyway.

oooooo

One of Gaara's favorite things about photography was that it allowed him to work mostly _alone_. Shooting, editing, developing, printing – these were all lovely, solitary activities. He could use that time to sort through information at his own pace, with no distractions, and then return to the horrible world above when he was ready.

So he was downright salty like a potato chip when the head of the art department sent him an e-mail stating that the privilege of being granted studio space and placement in advanced classes also came with the requirement of assisting the school newspaper with their photography needs.

Gaara wasn't happy about that.

But he wasn't willing to give up the things he had worked so hard for and risk losing them in the future as well; so on the first day of the new semester he reluctantly made his way to the necessary classroom to meet the newspaper staff and receive an assignment.

He had _wrongly_ assumed that they would be kind enough to hand the photographers their homework and then dismiss them so as not to waste anyone's time. But _no_. No, the editor thought it would be best to have a _discussion_ so that everyone could get to know each other and get a feel for the kind of things the different photographers would be best suited for.

It had already been an hour and Gaara hadn't spoken once.

He'd also declined to take a seat at one of the desks in the center of the room that had been arranged into a large, open circle that encouraged talking and open communication.

Gaara wasn't feeling any of that.

Instead he sat in a chair with the back to the wall and listened with an unintentionally unfriendly look on his face.

It was this look that kept the editor from pestering him to join in their jovial chitchat fest.

Once they _finally_ got into assignments, Gaara was relieved to find that it was mostly done on a volunteer basis. He was the only freshman photographer, and the others already had events or programs they liked shooting or had an idea in mind already of what they wanted. He was just going to sit back and wait until everything was finished and dolled out and just take whatever was left and then leave with no fuss.

Until they mentioned sports.

A clench he hadn't expected seized his body and he found himself getting more and more nervous as they moved through the different sports teams and announced the dates of the first games.

 _If someone else was already assigned to this…_

It wouldn't _matter_ , per se, Gaara just wouldn't like it. It hadn't occurred to him before today that he might like shooting any kind of athletic event but now that he was sitting here and the topic was up _of course_ he wanted that to be his assignment.

He certainly didn't want it to be someone else's.

"Okay! That finishes up our athletic department, for now anyway. We'll talk about the seasonal events in next month's meeting. Moving on to our fundraising-"

"What about the track team?"

Even the breeze that was about to come in through the window paused in shock.

Gaara was surprised himself. He hadn't planned on speaking, and couldn't remember making the conscious decision to let audible words exit his mouth and attempt to make communication with the people sitting around him – but if the surprised faces now staring at him were any indication then he certainly had.

"We-well," the editor answered after taking, what Gaara considered to be an unnecessary, moment to catch herself, "there is no track team this year."

Gaara never knew he did this, until his brother pointed it out one day, but he had a way of looking at people without moving his head that had a tendency to scare others once they realized his eyes were actually looking at them.

It was sometimes scarier if they saw his eyes snap over to them while his head remained perfectly still.

Well Gaara done spooked the editor.

"Rock Lee is on the team, and he has a meet in two weeks."

There were a few snickers and mumbles that almost had Gaara's eyes flicking over in their direction, but instead he kept his stare fixed pointedly on the editor.

"We don't typically send photographers out for just one student," the editor answered calmly, looking uncomfortable like she knew how uncool this sounded.

"He can't help it if he's the only one on the team," Gaara answered quickly in the same flat tone. He heard a few more snickers and once more resisted the urge to glare at them.

"Yes, I understand that. It's just that it's not the best use of our resources to travel to every single game or meet unless it's a special game- or if it's giving students the opportunity to represent the school," she continued, still sounding unsure of herself.

His eyes narrowed and she gave an almost imperceptible flinch.

"There are three photographers assigned to every single football game this month," he replied coolly.

Although it was clear that he wasn't paying attention to the others, a few of them dropped their jaws in offense at the idea that a fellow student didn't take their precious sport as seriously as they did, and began to mutter to each other.

"We have a regionally ranked football team – our students and faculty have a strong interest in-"

"Lee has the chance to qualify for regionals at this meet," Gaara interrupted. He was downright irritated now. At this point, it couldn't just be a matter of 'policy' or 'interest', for whatever reason these people were actively-

"That guy's a weirdo."

There was no time to resist the urge to turn and glare at the rudest thing Gaara had ever heard because his head moved reflexively of its own volition.

And now he done spooked this guy too.

But this man didn't even have the decency to look remorseful for his statement, and worse, in the split second before Gaara's glare was acknowledged there were a few people who had the audacity to _chuckle_ at this statement.

What was wrong with these people? Was this considered acceptable behavior here? At what point did it make the leap from a harmless statement to bullying? Was a scheduled meeting for an academic program full of students laughing at another who wasn't even there to defend himself not an example of it?

Gaara himself wasn't even sure of what to say other than 'you are', but the rude student spoke first.

"Oh, sorry," though he didn't sound it, "are you two like-"

"No," Gaara answered too quickly, and though he couldn't see his own face, he knew he must have looked exactly like his sister had when Kankuro asked if she thought Shikamaru was cute.

"…friends…?" he finished, raising an eyebrow at Gaara's reaction.

Ah, yes. Now that he'd said it, friends did seem like a more sensible end to that question.

Whoops.

Gaara continued to stare, making the awkward moment even worse.

For everyone else, at least.

"…okay…" the rude boy tried after another tense few seconds. "Then why do you even care if the paper writes about him?"

It was a fair question, probably, Gaara didn't particularly think so. But he was getting awfully worked up and making a bad impression for himself all over someone he'd just claimed he wasn't friends with.

But Lee…

Lee didn't deserve this. He was so kind to Gaara, and so warm and friendly and he'd spoken so passionately about his running and wanting to make his father proud – why wouldn't the paper want to write about someone like him? In fact, why stop at his track meets? They should insist that Gaara photograph Lee in his everyday life as well.

But there were students snickering.

Maybe Lee was a weirdo, Gaara had known him for two days, but weirdo or not, he didn't deserve this.

"It isn't our place to decide which students are worth reporting on," Gaara's brain supplied in lieu of the silence he felt better accompanied his glare. "There's a photographer for every sport. Lee should have one too."

Now they had the decency to look a bit ashamed.

"You're right," the editor interjected. "You're right… okay, Gaara, right? You can cover the track team. Normally we send photographers with teams to their games but I don't think the school is providing transportation for just him, and since you seem to know him – why don't you get in touch with Lee, see how he's getting to his meet and ask if you can just join him that way?"

His glare had softened the second she said he could photograph Lee (at least, that's how he heard it), and his heart began beating very hard again, even though Lee was nowhere in sight.

"Alright," he answered, hoping his voice didn't sound as shaky as it felt.

He stayed silent for the rest of the meeting, and the second the editor dismissed everyone he prepared himself to book it out of the classroom and find Lee when her voice interrupted him once more.

"Hey."

Gaara turned and looked at her with a severe face. She was keeping him from Lee.

"For someone who claims not to be his friend, you really got worked up over Lee."

 _What's your point_.

Fortunately, for her, she didn't wait for an answer (none was forthcoming). "I've seen your work, I know you're a good photographer. But maybe try to relax a little and get along with the rest of the staff?"

He dropped his chin in what could have been the beginnings of a nod, but just turned into a frown.

A second later she was pulled away by another student and Gaara left before she could talk to him again.

oooooo

Gaara was new to this campus and still unsure of where all the buildings and student facilities were. If he should happen to stumble upon one and find someone he knew there, it would be pure coincidence because he couldn't have _possibly_ gone there on purpose when he doesn't know where he's going.

…at least that's what he told himself as he headed toward the track field.

It was almost seven p.m., and Gaara wasn't even sure if Lee would still be out, or if he even had a practice, but technically he had been tasked with asking Lee about his means of transportation to his next game. So really, even if anyone were to call Gaara out on 'coincidence' when he made a beeline for the area, he could always say he was operating under the editor's orders.

Something he never intended to do again.

There were no other teams out, at least none that Gaara could hear, and he didn't realize he was holding his breath as he rounded the corner of the entrance to the stands and stepped out to see the field.

The warmth that bloomed in his heart when he saw the unmistakable black of Lee's hair streaking down the red track was downright indecent. Gaara ignored it in favor of resisting a tiny smile and the urge to pick up his camera and start snapping away.

Lee's back was to him. He didn't know Gaara was there… Gaara _could_ grab his camera and quickly take just one or two shots…

But no. Consent was important – especially to Gaara – and _especially_ if it concerned Lee. Even though it was just him, and he had no intention of sharing any ill-gotten photos of this man, Gaara felt a protective urge strike him.

No, Lee would only be photographed when he'd given explicit permission for it, Gaara would be certain of that.

He stepped forward, spotting Lee's gym bag and moving toward it.

Once Lee had come to the turn in the track, he was able to spot Gaara, and even from fifty feet away Gaara could see the way his face lit up as he beamed.

"Hi, Gaara!" Lee yelled, excitedly waving one arm. It looked as though he had sped up, too.

Gaara had to avert his eyes and look down at the ground as his mouth twisted uncomfortably again.

Why was his heart beating so hard? Why did he feel so excited for Lee to get over to him?

And curse his mouth for its senseless determination to smile stupidly and make him look like a fool.

The sound of panting reached Gaara before Lee did, and Gaara was left feeling even _more_ confused that such a thing should be contributing to his heart palpitations.

He looked up as the slap of Lee's shoes on the track slowed and finally came to a halt a few feet from him.

"Hi, Gaara!" Lee said again, just as brightly as before.

If it were anyone else, the flushed cheeks, the deep heavy breaths making the chest rise and fall dramatically, and the light sheen of sweat covering their body would have made Gaara back away.

But instead this made him blush.

He felt like he shouldn't be looking directly _at_ Lee – like it was the indecent thing to be staring so hungrily.

Not that such an awareness made Gaara look away.

Oh, and yes. Lee had said hello to him. Gaara would do well to respond.

"Hi, Lee," he answered quietly, horrified at how strange his voice sounded.

"This is such a pleasant surprise! And great timing too, I just finished my timed run – although I think I sped up a bit at the end there and skewed my time… that's alright! I can just run another one later tonight!"

He was talking to Gaara, but it looked as though Lee was spacing out and speaking to himself in front of an audience.

"So how are you? How was your first day of classes?" Lee asked brightly, looking up at Gaara and properly giving him undivided attention once more.

"They were fine."

"What did you have today?" Lee pressed, still grinning as he knelt down and into his bag.

Gaara forgot to answer as he watched Lee retrieve a small towel and began to wipe his face and neck.

Oh _no_.

"I – uh," Gaara started, after Lee looked back up at him expectantly.

Great – on top of everything else Lee did to him, now Gaara forgot how to speak English?

He cleared his throat and looked in the opposite direction.

"I had photography and-" he answered.

Beside him, Gaara heard Lee stand back up and then the small 'pop' he knew to be the sound Lee's water bottle made when it opened.

Oh well it would be rude to continue looking away from Lee. Purely for politeness sake, and because this was his academically assigned photography subject – Gaara ought to be thoughtful and direct his focus to Lee.

He absolutely did not whip his head around to stare at Lee gulping down water because he _wanted_ to.

…

"- and chemistry…" he finished.

Lee's magnificent eyebrows rose in surprise and he put down his bottle. "Chemistry?" he asked after wiping his mouth off with the same towel. "Oh gosh that's impressive! I was never any good at chemistry. I'm taking environmental sciences for my science requirement. Do you enjoy it?"

Gaara gave a noncommittal shrug. "I'm taking it because I work with chemical solutions when I develop prints. It had the most to do with something I'm actually interested in."

As Lee opened his mouth to respond his stomach interrupted and did so for him.

Two sets of eyes immediately dropped to look at the noisy thing and Lee closed his eyes, looking bashful, as he placed one of his hands on it.

"Sorry about that. I came straight out here after class, so I haven't eaten yet," Lee explained.

"I haven't either," Gaara replied immediately.

Lee's eyes lit up. "Oh! Well, the cafeteria is closed by now, but would you like to go grab dinner together?"

 _ **Yes!**_

"That sounds fine," Gaara answered, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

And then there was that wonderful smile again.

"Wonderful! I should probably change then…" Lee murmured, looking down into his gym bag where Gaara suspected the clothes he'd worn to class earlier that day were stashed.

"I don't mind if you're dressed like that."

Lee looked up at him and blinked his owlishly large eyes. "Are you sure, Gaara? It's really no trouble at all to change. My clothes are right here-"

"No, it's fine. I'm hungry and don't want to wait," he replied.

That was true, too. It just wasn't the whole truth.

Lee smiled again. "Okay! Then let's go find some food!"

Gaara tucked his chin to hide his smile as Lee led them off the field.

oooooo

The pair stopped at the first place they came to. Gaara stayed outside on the patio, securing them a table while Lee went in to order burgers for them. He came back out grinning brightly and holding a white Styrofoam cup in one hand, and his full water bottle in the other. When Lee had politely asked Gaara what he would prefer to drink, Gaara had said he would have whatever Lee was having.

It was only now that he realized that meant water.

"Here you are!" Lee chirped, holding Gaara's cup out to him as he sat down.

Gaara accepted it with both hands and said, "Thank you," quietly.

Lee took a long drink and let out a satisfied 'ahh' when he finished before turning to Gaara. "Please tell me more about your day! I didn't get to hear about your photography class."

Gaara gazed at him as he sucked out of his straw. "It was fine. Since it was the first day of class we spent most of the time going over our assignments this semester,"

"What kinds of things do you have to do?"

He took another sip. "There are three big projects due: one for landscape, one for…models…, and one of our choice," he finished quickly.

There was no reason not to tell Lee the nature of the modeling assignment, but truthfully it was the thing Gaara was least looking forward to this semester and it made him inexplicably uncomfortable to picture Lee knowing that he had to take pictures of someone naked.

Lee didn't catch his companion's momentary discomfort and continued to look at Gaara as though this was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"Do you already know what you will choose?"

Gaara shook his head. "Not yet, but that assignment isn't due until the end of the semester. We will receive more information, including the requirements, as we get closer to the date."

Lee nodded in understanding. "And models – how fun! Like a fashion show?"

It was such a sweet, simple, naïve answer. The corner of Gaara's mouth twitched and he felt his expression soften as he gazed at Lee's face.

"Not exactly," he murmured. Thankfully he was spared from explaining the project in detail by the arrival of the waiter with their burgers and fries.

"Thank you!" Lee said happily to the man before picking his burger up and holding it up. "Cheers!"

It took Gaara a moment, but he held up his own burger and awkwardly tapped it to Lee's before echoing, "Cheers…"

It did the trick, though. Lee smiled at him and then tore into his dinner.

"Oh, man," Lee moaned after he swallowed the first bite of food. "These are so good. My dad and I love this place."

Gaara had been so focused on watching Lee eat that his own burger remained whole in his hands. He snapped out of his trance and took a bite before nodding at Lee in agreement.

They _were_ good. Gaara didn't usually go for burgers, and he'd only come here because Lee seemed so excited about it and he just wanted to eat with Lee – but this was a very good serving of meat.

Lee ate much faster than he did. As Gaara moved to take his second bite, he noticed that Lee's burger was already half gone.

"Lee, you should slow down or you'll get sick."

That's what his sister always told his brother when he ate too enthusiastically. The same sentiment never needed to be directed toward Gaara because he chose to remain human while he ate instead of turning into some kind of starving vacuum cleaner.

"Hm? Oh," Lee said with a small laugh as his hand covered his mouth and he struggled to swallow. "Sorry, sorry. I'm used to eating quickly with my dad and being here with these burgers and you're here –" Lee looked up at him and turned pink. "I'm sorry for being rude! I will eat more slowly!" he finished quickly.

Gaara understood about half of that.

"Why do you and your father eat so fast?" he asked, focusing on the part of Lee's small speech that didn't baffle him.

Lee gave a small laugh again. "There's no special reason. Sometimes we race each other to see who can finish first, but usually we're just very excited about food."

Gaara had never met Lee's father, but he pictured a taller version of Lee sitting at the table with them and grinning just as brightly at his burger before tearing into it the way his son had.

"You eat together here frequently?"

Lee looked thoughtful for a second and shook his head. "Not as frequently as I would like. My dad lives about an hour away, so he only comes up here for my track meets or on parent's day."

He watched Lee's face and frowned. "How often do you see him?"

"Usually at least once a month. If I don't have a meet, then I take a bus and visit home for the weekend," Lee answered before taking another bite, much slower this time.

Once a month seemed frequent to Gaara. Weren't college students supposed to be more independent from their parents? He'd never heard of a university student who was so desperate to spend time with their dad that they would take a bus for an _hour_ just so they wouldn't have to go another month without a visit.

But then again, Lee was sweet. Gaara didn't know a lot of sweet people. Maybe this was just how sweet people were.

Or perhaps that was just how Lee and his father were.

"In fact," Lee added suddenly, perking up and nearly startling Gaara with the speed of it. "He's coming up here to take me to my track meet in two weeks. You could meet him!" he cried, excitedly.

Oh right – the track meet.

"Actually, Lee. I need to ask you about that."

Those magnificent eyebrows rose once more and Lee looked at him expectantly as pink tongue slipped out to lick sauce off of the corner of his mouth.

Alright – Gaara was going to have to visit a cardiologist after this dinner but alright.

"I am required to assist the school newspaper with photography, so I will be covering your track meet," Gaara said, looking down at his burger to avoid making direct eye contact.

The table briefly shunted towards him as Lee leapt up from his seat.

"That is amazing!" he shrieked, clenching his fists and beaming at Gaara so brightly it was like the sun came back out just to backlight Lee.

He hadn't thought to expect any sort of reaction from Lee, but this was sort of… lovely.

"Oh, well, yes," he answered lamely.

"Gaara this is so exciting!" Lee continued to chirp. "I'm so happy you will get to see me run!"

Truthfully, Gaara was too.

He nodded in the affirmative and was so entranced by Lee's genuine pleasure over this small piece of information that he failed to notice the people inside were staring at them, and that he was smiling.

"Ooh, I am fired up! I feel like I should go for my run right now!" Lee said, looking out of the patio like he was considering the street.

"You haven't finished eating," Gaara pointed out, partly because it was true and partly because he wasn't ready to leave yet.

Lee blinked at him and then down at the few bites that remained of his burger. His fries were still untouched.

"You're right! And it is important to finish your food," Lee declared, sitting back down at smiling at his dinner guest before popping the rest of the burger into his mouth.

So much for eating slowly.

"Gaara," Lee said thickly before pausing so he could swallow. "My meet is about an hour away so my dad is coming up here to take me, would you like to ride with us?"

Gaara nodded and took another bite so his mouth couldn't betray him and grin again.

Lee beamed and reached down into his bag. He pulled his phone out and handed it to Gaara who took it with a confused frown.

"Would you please give me your telephone number so that I can text you the time and place of where to meet?" he asked, ever so politely.

Lee was going to have his number.

Gaara tapped his number into the phone and handed it back.

"Thank you!" Lee chirped. "I'll send you a message right now so that you have my number."

Gaara watched Lee's fingers move and then felt a buzz in his pocket a second later. He pulled his phone out and was almost irritated at how warm Lee's ' _Hi, Gaara! ^^_ ' made him feel.

No one had ever used a cute eyes emoji and his name in the same message. It had simply never happened. Granted, the only people he ever text were his siblings and Naruto – but still.

He added Lee's name to the contact and put his phone away again. "I got it."

"Awesome. I'm so excited for you to come! I'm so lucky that they assigned you to track!"

Gaara nodded and looked down at his burger again. There was no need to correct Lee and tell him that he'd actually made himself look bad by getting defensive and arguing with the editor and demanding that Lee get the same treatment as the other teams. It was better to let Lee think this was coincidence.

Although he certainly felt lucky.

"I should probably also get some photos of your practice," Gaara heard himself saying.

"Oh wow! That's great! Well I practice every day immediately after class, and tomorrow I finish at noon so I will probably be there from one to six," Lee said happily.

Gaara blinked at him.

"You practice for five hours?" he asked in disbelief.

Lee nodded seriously. "Oh yes, it's important to keep myself in peak physical shape before meets."

"That sounds like too much."

"It's really fine, I assure you. In fact – you could join me sometime! We could go for a run together!"

That wasn't even tempting – just a flat out no.

"I cannot run for five hours," Gaara said flatly.

Lee laughed his delightful laugh again and shook his head. "Oh no not for five hours, but you know, maybe some morning you could join me for my jog! It's usually just four miles-"

Gaara stared at him.

"Or we could do just three?"

Gaara continued to stare.

"Two?"

Someone get Gaara an exercise machine because this guy is the stare-master.

"One?!" Lee tried again, sounding incredulous.

"I will go for a one mile walk with you," Gaara offered.

"Ooh how great! Wait –"

But Gaara nodded to Lee's fries. "Those are going to get cold."

And Lee took the bait.

They walked back to campus together with Lee prattling on excitedly about how wonderful dinner was. He was so passionate – and it was just dinner.

"Thank you so much for joining me tonight, Gaara," Lee beamed when they reached the outside of Gaara's dorm.

There was no need for Lee to thank him, so Gaara just said, 'you're welcome' uncertainly.

"Will I see you tomorrow at practice?" he asked hopefully.

Gaara nodded.

"There's no need to come for the entire time, please don't feel that you have to."

Although watching Lee run around for five hours actually didn't sound like a terrible way to spend an afternoon, he wouldn't be able to anyway.

"My last class ends at two fifty. I will join you after," Gaara replied.

"Great! Well then – I'll see you tomorrow!" Lee said. He paused and looked uncertain of himself before jerking forward a bit with his arms out, and then he seemed to think better of himself and awkwardly moved his arms to wave goodbye instead.

"Goodnight, Gaara!"

"Goodnight, Lee," Gaara echoed, frowning at what had just happened.

Was Lee going to hug him? Is that what that was?

Normally, Gaara would have objected to such a thing on principle. But now, as he gazed at Lee's retreating back, he wished that Lee had.

oooooo

A/N: The next chapter should be up by Nov. 27th! Thank you for reading! ^^


	5. Track Practice, Mini Golf, and the Boner

A/N: I know I said this would likely be up on the 27th, but there's a very good reason why that didn't happen! And that reason is -

oooooo

When Lee was five years old, he got his first crush.

His dad took him to the beach where a very handsome lifeguard was on duty. Young Lee could not explain why, but he really wanted the lifeguard to pick him up.

If he closed his eyes, Lee could still remember the short, copper hair that had been tanned by the sun, and beautiful honey skin decorated with tiny freckles all over the tops of his shoulders and the bridge of his nose.

Lee thought he was beautiful.

Gai had noticed the way Lee kept looking over at the stand and assumed that his son was admiring this respectable member of the community who helped keep people safe. So naturally, he wanted to introduce Lee to this upstanding citizen and see if it inspired a similar desire to work towards helping others in his impressionable child's mind.

But when Gai took his son's hand and walked him over to meet this wonderful object of youthful interest, Lee turned bright pink. He caught on to the real reason behind his son's harmless admiration when he saw that Lee wasn't listening to a word the young man said, but kept smiling and blushing.

The lifeguard was nice enough to use his break time to introduce himself and tell Lee all about how important his job was, and even posed for a picture.

Gai still had the picture.

It looked dated, it was taken with a disposable camera that Gai kept in their beach bag, and it featured a handsome teenager with his arm around the small shoulders of a five-year-old with the biggest, sweetest smile on his face.

Gai kept it on their wall, hanging among countless other photos of Lee in various stages of his life, and each photo boasted the same, toothy grin his son had always had.

In many ways, Lee was still the same shy little kid: hopelessly in love with the lifeguard he barely knew.

Gai helped Lee become more confident and bold over the years, since he couldn't stand to see his wonderful child regard himself as anything less than exceptional, but the often-undeserved admiration Lee was always prepared to devote at the drop of a hat to the person of his interest was something he'd had since childhood.

Lee fell in love easily.

Now he only ever claimed to have been in love with two people: a girl in high school, and a boy during his first year at college. So it wasn't that Lee played the Cassanova and threw his heart at anyone who looked at him, although this was how he offered his friendship, it just happened that for Lee, taking the leap from liking someone and finding them to be attractive to _furiously promising to give them anything and everything he had_ was usually done much quicker than most people.

Gai knew his son well, and when they got off the phone, after Lee had excitedly gushed about a handsome boy he had met the night before at a party, Gai could guess at how things would play out.

He would never advise Lee to be anything but true to himself, and if Lee wanted to honor those feelings and tell this boy how he felt, then Gai would support him one hundred percent. Lee would never be anything less than respectful to the point of obnoxiousness, and encouraging his son to always be honest about his feelings never put anyone at risk for being harassed.

No, Lee was a delightful angel who deserved to find someone who would love him just as deeply and passionately as Lee would love them.

But Lee had also told his father about his roommate's advice.

Gai held them in tremendously high esteem. Tenten and Neji were great friends who brought joy, stability, and growth to Lee's life – that's like a trifecta of perfection for a parent. Gai honored the importance of acknowledging the words of friends and taking them to heart.

Since Gai knew that Tenten and Neji had spoken from a place of love, Gai encouraged Lee not to dismiss their warnings, even if they contradicted what Gai would usually advise his son to do.

But since Gai also loved Lee more than anything and didn't want his baby to get his heart broken again, his advice was for Lee to figure out exactly how he felt about this new mystery person before he pledged to devote his life to loving them.

He considered this a compromise in his parenting style.

When Lee called him again the following Tuesday morning and said that the mystery boy was on a special assignment to photograph his track meet and needed to join them on the trip up there, Gai was thrilled for his son. Lee didn't even need to say how excited he was (although he did, many times), because Gai could hear it in Lee's voice.

Ah, the splendid hearts of the youthful!

Lee was right up on cloud nine over the promise of getting to spend time with this boy, and Gai felt joy when his son did.

He only hoped that this new person wasn't going to hurt his Lee.

oooooo

 _Technically_ no one asked Gaara to photograph Lee's practices.

He wasn't even sure why he wanted to, but after his dinner with Lee he found himself unable to fall asleep as he tried to plan what kinds of shots he wanted to get.

If he was more aware of his feelings, and more honest with himself, he might acknowledge his self-imposed assignment as a way of masking that he wanted to spend time with Lee but felt like he needed a reason for it; an excuse to fall back on in case Lee didn't actually want to spend time with him.

But Gaara didn't consider any of that as he cleaned his lenses the night before he made plans to watch Lee train. He merely thought about where he should stand to get the best angles, given what he knew of the track after seeing it tonight. He considered what time of day and how the light would look by the time he made it out there. His fingertips lightly moved over two of his cameras as he wondered which one would be more useful…

Better bring both.

No matter how confused he was over his unfamiliar pull to spend time in the company of someone who wasn't Naruto or his siblings, he could take solace in the warm, comfortable embrace of photography.

If nothing else, this was just another opportunity to work on his hobby.

That was what he reminded himself when he woke up the next morning, remembered that he would be seeing Lee later, and felt his heart began to attack him.

oooooo

Gaara was ready for this practice.

To anyone blessed with the power to read minds, this burn for photos might come off as perverted and untoward, but Gaara just wanted to put a rest to the bizarre sensations Lee made his body feel.

He reasoned that if he was able to sit, on his own time and with nothing distracting him from processing, that he would be able to read Lee's art and begin to regard him with the same neutrality that he did everyone else.

Even Naruto, his best friend, who reigned most precious in his heart, and who had made Gaara feel all sorts of things he never had before, never made him this… _tingly_.

It was vexing.

Although to be fair, the burst of new emotions that befriending Naruto had made him feel were also once equally troubling to him.

He'd never had a friend before Naruto.

Even with his siblings, things were always…tense.

Then that loud, optimistic, blonde fool reached out to him and introduced this foreign, bizarre concept of _connecting_ with others.

It fucked him up real bad.

But it ended up being for the best, because he was able to form meaningful bonds with his siblings and it left him with a friend.

Of course, it had still taken hours of pouring over photos and studying Naruto and his behaviors for Gaara to get comfortable with this new facet of his life.

Now, as he packed the two selected cameras into a travel case and hoisted the strap over his shoulder, he recalled how breathless he'd been the first time Naruto called him his friend.

He stood there, in his bedroom, frowning as he tore through the memory and tried to remember exactly what it had felt like.

Was it the same as when he first saw Lee?

He would never forget that day, or the exact moment – hell, even the particular cadence of Naruto's voice when he'd said, "What are friends for?"

The particular sentiment was said after Naruto had offered to take him to dinner.

Of course…Naruto had eaten most of his food…but that was beside the point.

Gaara took photos that day. The second Naruto called him 'friend', or at least implied with his question that this was how he regarded Gaara, and the heart palpitations began, Gaara knew he wouldn't ever want to forget a single detail of what was certainly one of the most important days of his life.

Naruto liked being photographed, it made him feel important. He had a lot of fun with the posing, and usually demanded to see the results after every shot, so he had cheerfully acquiesced when Gaara pulled his camera out.

Gaara only had two photographs on his desk in his dorm. One, of him with his siblings on the day his big sister first went to college. The three of them had gone out to breakfast together, and then said goodbye in the parking lot of the restaurant. Before Temari drove off, Gaara had balanced one of his cameras on the roof of her car, and the three of them stood together, Kankuro with syrup still on corner of his mouth, Temari with tears in her eyes, and Gaara with the arms of two siblings who loved him dearly wrapped around him.

As the last few seconds of the camera's timer ticked off, before the flash blinded them, Kankuro had muttered out the side of his mouth, through his grin, "Everyone say 'Temari sucks'!"

This is how little brothers say 'I'm going to miss you and you're the worst for going off to college.'

The smiles the camera caught were one hundred percent real.

Beside that photo, is one of Naruto, two hours after he'd called Gaara friend.

He's grinning cheekily at the camera and winking with his right eye.

Gaara treasured those pictures.

And now, he needed to go take about two hundred of Lee so he could move on with his life.

oooooo

When Gaara finally made to the track field, he immediately realized two things:

One, he had never photographed an athlete before and Lee was moving quite fast.

And two, now that he thought about it, this was definitely a different kind of breathlessness than what Naruto's friend brand made him feel.

He shook his head and tried to shake it off as he got closer to Lee, feeling sort of annoyed when Lee spotted him and waved enthusiastically and it made his heart giddy.

Enough already.

"Hi, Gaara!" Lee panted, sprinting up to him and pushing a button on his watch. It was probably another timer, and Gaara frowned at the idea that Lee was interrupting something important just so he could come over and greet Gaara.

"How was your class?" Lee continued with the happiest of grins as he wiped his forehead off on the back of his arm.

Gaara ran his eyes over Lee's face and then swallowed. "It was fine."

"I'm glad! I'm just in the middle of my distance runs – is there anything you need me to do?"

He slipped the strap of his bag off of his shoulder and gently laid it down on the ground, beside Lee's bag, so he could fish out the first camera to work with.

"No, I'll just move around you," Gaara answered as he shook his head, keeping his eyes down and focused on his cameras, definitely not glancing over every half a second at Lee's ankles.

One of them disappeared, forcing Gaara to look up and see where it went only to find Lee had pulled one of his feet up to stretch his leg.

"Okay!" Lee replied before switching legs.

Gaara sort of wanted a picture of that, but such a pose would be much harder to rationalize to himself.

That was definitely not what the newspaper was looking for.

"Please just flag me down if you need me to do anything special!" Lee said. "I'm really glad you're here!"

Gaara was still crouched on the ground, with his hands on his camera, but from the way he had to look up at Lee and the way the sun was shining behind him…

Lee looked like a goddamn angel.

All Gaara could do was nod once and sort of murmur, "Me too," before Lee nodded, hit his watch and took off again.

Alright.

It was time to get into photographer mode.

 _Knock it off_ , Gaara told his heart and shaky knees as he started to walk to the inside of the track so he could begin there.

Fortunately, the second the moment he held the eyepiece up to his face, instinct took over and his body relaxed.

This was second nature to him. This was where he was comfortable.

He completely lost track of time as his finger tapped away, taking photo after photo.

When Lee stopped, some indiscriminate amount of time later – it was irrelevant to Gaara since the lighting hadn't really changed, he went back to his bag and switched out his cameras.

Now he was shooting with a lens intended for closer, fish eye views.

Lee was stretching and taking a water break, and possibly trying to make conversation, but Gaara was completely ignoring him as he moved around Lee taking the very shots he'd told himself he shouldn't take.

But he was in the zone.

He didn't overthink the shots, he didn't stop and question whether or not they would be _useful_ to the paper, he just let his instincts move him and the cameras.

When Lee stretched his legs again and laughed when he realized Gaara wasn't going to answer any of his questions as long as he was tucked behind a camera, Gaara got a fantastic shot of Lee sitting down with one leg curled in and one out long, with his hand wrapped around his shoe to pull the muscles in his leg, and a gorgeous smile on his face.

But Gaara could blush over that later.

Right now, he just continued his work.

When Lee got up and started running again, Gaara moved around to position himself in different places to wait for the close up when Lee finally ran past him again, even if it meant staying still in the same spot and not shooting anything for several minutes as he waited.

It occurred to him, the first actual _thought_ he had since he started shooting, that he ought to invest in a GoPro. Before, he didn't think he would use one enough to justify the cost, especially since he wasn't interested in videography, but Lee just moved so _fast_.

He would look at his finances. It might be worth it.

Gaara finally walked back over to his bag when Lee finally came to a stop, pulled out his phone and typed something after he looked at his watch (Gaara suspected he was keeping a record of his times, since he'd done this several times throughout the practice).

The time must have been good, because Lee looked thrilled when he turned to face Gaara.

"Did you get the pictures you needed?" Lee asked brightly.

Gaara nodded as he knelt down to begin tucking his camera away.

"Great! You looked like you were working very hard out there! You looked like a professional," Lee said, offering him a thumbs-up and a wink.

Gaara felt a warmth bloom in his chest that was usually reserved for Naruto's praise.

He looked up at Lee, prepared to say 'thank you', but Lee crouched down at that instant and brought himself to Gaara's eye level.

"Can I help you put anything away?" he asked before Gaara could get any words out.

Gaara looked down at the lens in his hand that he'd been about to swaddle into a case and shook his head. "No… thank you."

Lee stood back up and grabbed his water bottle. "I'm so excited – tonight was the first time I hit my goal!" he said around gulps of water.

He kept his eyes on the lens he was wiping with a special cloth and only flicked his eyes up to Lee for a moment when he replied, "What was the goal?"

After a beat, where Gaara could hear the water struggling to go down, Lee wiped the back of his mouth and said, "Four miles in under twenty-five minutes!"

He had no real basis of comparison, but Gaara thought that sounded awfully fast.

"Don't you tire yourself out when you train for so long?" he asked as he put away the last piece of equipment.

Lee shook his head with his mouth still full of water. "Every time I fall short of a goal the first thing I want to do is go out and try again!"

Gaara frowned at him. "Your body allows that?"

"The doctor said my body is an anomaly and listens to my brain more than biology," Lee answered in a matter-of-fact way that implied he'd quoted this very phrase before.

Gaara just stared at him as he stood up and fixed the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

"He also said I need to cool it or none of my muscles will work by the time I'm forty – but my _dad_ trains all the time and he just turned forty-two!" Lee said with a grin as he bent down to mirror Gaara and picked his own bag up.

They began walking off the field together as they talked, though neither of them had discussed where they were headed.

"Your father is very young," Gaara commented.

For some reason, that seemed to please Lee a great deal. "Yeah, he had me when he was quite young."

Gaara frowned as he did math in his head. "Was he still in college?"

Lee wiped his mouth again after another sip and shook his head. "My dad didn't go to college, he was a police officer!" he said proudly.

That contradicted the image Gaara had in his head for this man.

"I thought you said he was your coach in high school," Gaara replied, sounding more accusatory than he meant to.

Lee grinned at him for a second, and since Gaara wasn't looking he missed the expression of excitement Lee felt for Gaara remembering something about him. "He quit being an officer shortly after I was born. He said that being a police officer means devoting your heart and time freely to the job, and a new parent must also devote themselves entirely to their baby."

He said this the same way he had quoted the doctor.

"So he chose you?" Gaara asked as they both rounded the corner of a building at the same time.

"Yes! Although, it's something I've always felt a bit guilty about," Lee answered as he put the bottle he had finally polished off into his bag.

"Why."

Lee frowned. "He doesn't like to talk about it, so I've always thought it must have been very painful for him to leave the force. He likes being a coach, he loves sports, but now that I'm in college he doesn't get to coach me anymore and I wonder if he wishes he could go back to police work."

Gaara was silent as he processed this information.

"But you don't have a coach now," he finally replied after a long pause.

"Pardon?"

"Why doesn't your father come and coach you here, since you don't have a track coach anymore," Gaara asked.

Lee sighed and shifted his bag on his shoulder. "You need a degree to teach at a university. The president was very firm on that point," he answered sadly.

That didn't make any sense.

"I was told the school is bringing in an interim coach after my meet," he continued as they approached the building housing the cafeteria.

Gaara only said 'mhmm' to show he was listening.

"But since my flyers didn't work and no one new came to try out at practice yesterday, I got an email this morning hinting that the team might be cut altogether if I don't place."

That was terrible.

"Why would they cut the team if there's a student already on it who wants to compete?"

They both pulled out their meal cards in unison.

"Coaches are expensive. Mine was a tenured professor in the history who happened to fall ill, so the school didn't have time to find someone who could do both jobs," Lee explained. "And if I don't place at this meet then the competition season is over unless I want to _pay_ to compete – and those kinds of events are usually expensive."

The boys grabbed trays and Gaara started to follow Lee as he moved around, piling food on his plate.

It was astounding. Gaara wondered if Lee was just distracted by his own talking and didn't realize that he had enough for four people.

He grabbed soup and bread for himself, preferring to eat like a normal person, but he still followed Lee to every station and then finally out into the dining area.

It took Gaara a second too long to realize that Lee wasn't just heading for an open table and this meal wasn't going to be just the two of them again – he was guiding them towards his roommates.

"I'm just saying, they could expand the variety of fruit they offer us. This is stifling."

"Neji, it's an apple – just eat the apple."

"It's a pink lady."

"Eat the damn apple!"

Lee interrupted their tiff by cautiously placing his tray down on the table and staring at them with wide eyes.

"Are you both alright?" he asked without a trace of condescension, even though he must have heard that they were snipping about an apple.

"We're fine, Neji's just being a diva _as usual_. He needs some more of his precious fiber," Tenten answered as she picked up her cup and took a very pointed sip.

Lee laughed as he sat down, and then noticed that Gaara was still awkwardly standing there, hovering next to the table. He wasn't sure if this was where he was meant to say goodbye to Lee so that the roommates could dine alone.

Then Lee pulled the chair out for him.

No one had ever done that for Gaara before.

"Thank you," he murmured as he sat down, staring at Lee all the while.

"I'm not a diva," Neji said, keeping his un-amused gaze on the woman sitting next to him.

"Sure you are, Neji!" Lee chirped back happily. "But we love you for it!"

Neji turned the same expression to his other roommate.

"Gaara, how are your classes?" Tenten asked as she tried to smother a laugh after looking at Neji's face.

Oh good, this again.

Why couldn't Gaara just sit in Lee's _company_ without the social contractions of talking to others?

"They're fine," he answered before taking a bite of bread and hoping the occupancy in his mouth would discourage further questions.

Tenten sawed apart some of her chicken breast and sighed. "I remember my first week of freshman year," she said wistfully.

"It was literally only a year ago."

"Be quiet," she shot back, shooing off Neji's comment with her fork. "Don't worry if it all feels overwhelming, that's how it is for everyone," she said to Gaara, kindly.

Lee nodded enthusiastically as he shoveled food into his mouth with the same intensity he had shown to the burger.

He hadn't been lying over his excitement toward food.

Gaara nodded at her, since he was chewing extra slowly to keep food in his mouth, and then proceeded to quietly observe the three roommates for the remainder of the meal.

Again, photos were preferable to field data collection, but when he finally said goodbye to Lee – who had politely asked if Gaara would send him some of the photos so he could e-mail them to his dad – he had learned a few things.

For one, apparently the amount of food Lee ate was only surprising to him, because Neji and Tenten neither commented nor batted an eye.

Tenten had made most of the jewelry she was wearing.

Neji spent a lot of money on his conditioner, and was frustrated when his roommates used it without his permission.

Lee would eat literally anything, including the apple Neji deemed unworthy.

But the piece of information most surprising to Gaara was that the three of them seemed to be able to communicate without using words.

He didn't think they were actively trying to exclude him from conversation, since no one ever looked at him suspiciously or whispered, but there were several points throughout dinner where one of them would make a face, or say a single word, and the other two immediately knew what they were thinking.

It was incredible.

Gaara had an extremely difficult time understanding body language and reading other people's emotions, so watching these three interact in their natural habitat was like a real life special on bizarre and inexplicable human behavior.

He didn't dwell on this, though.

Once he made it back to his dorm and saw that his roommate was still out, Gaara immediately retrieved the memory card from his camera and slipped it into his computer.

He made himself comfortable at his desk while the images imported.

His jaw nearly dropped when the 'ding' announcing the completion of this task went off.

Somehow – although really he knew exactly how – but somehow he had taken _four hundred_ photos of Lee.

Seven hundred.

!

It just seemed like a bit much for a shoot that only lasted a few hours and only involved _one person_.

Nevertheless, it was his job to go through them, and privately he was pleased to finally have so much to work with so he could try and understand why Lee made him feel the way he did.

So he tucked in.

oooooo

Four hours later Gaara was furious.

He had gone through every photo, although he had skipped through a series of Lee stretching because they made him dizzy and left a strange feeling just below his navel, and he understood _nothing_.

Lee's hair wasn't just black, it was onyx. It shined too much to be a pure jet black. Gaara couldn't keep up with where the shine moved, though it always seemed to stay in somewhat of a crown on the top of Lee's head – making him look positively regal in the sunlight.

It was the same with his eyes.

Gaara had never seen eyes that dark before, and he had been looking forward to having a photo so he could study their color without having to stare at Lee's face for hours.

He'd been told that makes people uncomfortable.

But he didn't understand!

No more could he explain the warmth of Lee's skin. How was he pale enough that Gaara could see the blood in his veins running underneath the skin of the insides of his wrists, but it was tan enough that the freckles on Lee's nose nearly blended in until Gaara spotted them under a well-lit shot.

How was he lean enough that the bone in his shin was prominent enough to cast a shadow onto the calf muscle beside it, but when Lee stretched his arms up and his shirt came up a few centimeters it revealed an Adonis belt disappearing into his shorts. How could Gaara see the soft roundness of his cheeks, but spot the obvious presence of a cheekbone when Lee's head was turned to the side.

Why did Lee appear to be soft curves from far away and turn into lovely sculpted lines when Gaara scrutinized him closely?

 _And why was it so hard to breathe?!_

When his body finally did something he found to be completely unacceptable, coincidentally occurring after he spotted that homage to a Greek god, Gaara closed his laptop and made a decision.

He would choose some photos, edit them with the best of his skill (since this was still professional practice, after all), and send them to Lee – and he would perform his necessary duty to the paper and photograph Lee's track meet, but he couldn't spend any more time with Lee. He would not continue to put himself in the presence of someone who did this to his body, whether they wanted to or not. The uncertainty of it all was infuriating to him.

After scowling at his the top of his computer for a minute while he waited for his body to calm down, Gaara grabbed his shower things and went to the shared bathroom down the hall.

As the water warmed up, he tried a meditation tactic to clear his mind and focused on his breathing as he tried to go blissfully blank.

Once his mind was free of muscles and eyebrows and a sweet, warm smile, Gaara let his hand do what his body needed to relax.

He tried not to dwell on why it was so difficult to keep those thoughts out of his head as he did so.

oooooo

He made it to the Friday before the track meet without seeing Lee.

The morning after Gaara had gone to Lee's practice, he'd woken up to a text that once again thanked him for coming.

Gaara had been horrified for a brief moment before his sleepy mind realized Lee meant 'too his practice'.

He wasn't sure how to reply, so to keep things professional he simply asked for Lee's e-mail address since he needed a place to send the photos.

Lee had replied in under a minute and added a smiley face.

Gaara didn't respond again.

He chose five photos to edit (none of which included Lee's abs), which was far too many for the paper, and probably just in general – but he'd actually narrowed it down from his top fifty so five was really quite a compromise.

It was a genuine struggle to try and remain as physically neutral and calm as possible as clicked away through Photoshop.

 _This was just a job. This was just a subject. Do what you know. Emphasize colors, bring out lighting, make this art into better art._

It ended up taking him almost ten hours because he kept having to walk away from the program.

His e-mail to Lee only said 'Here are the photos' and he hadn't included a subject or a signature.

Lee sent him an e-mail and a text with enthusiastic 'thank you's.

Then a follow up text saying that his dad loved them.

Then another that Friday to ask if he had any plans that weekend.

This was the only one Gaara replied to, and he told Lee he had homework.

He wasn't trying to be cruel, he was trying to keep himself safe from the inexplicable.

It also wasn't really a lie, Gaara did have a lot of work to do and he had plans to eat dinner with his siblings so he could tell them all about his first week at college.

The only time he was ever worried about running into Lee was at meals, since Gaara liked to eat with Naruto and Naruto and Lee were friends.

But mercifully it hadn't happened.

Then, when the second week of school began, Gaara found himself wanting to see Lee in spite of his better judgment.

But that alone was vexing!

If he knew better, then what the heck heart – knock it off.

So he continued to focus on school, spent time with Naruto, texted his siblings, and wondered what he was going to do on Saturday when he did finally have to see Lee.

Then, the Friday before, just when Gaara thought he was going to be calm and could go to this track meet without experiencing a single heart palpitation – it became obvious that Gaara was not as adjusted as he'd hoped.

He'd walked to the cafeteria with Naruto, again, foolishly believing that dinner would just be the two of them, and then they had run into Lee.

Stupid tall, long-fingered, bright, smiling, _Lee_.

And Gaara's heart went mental.

He couldn't believe it – he was so _excited_ to see him.

Why?!

Lee and his roommates were on their way out of the cafeteria, so they wouldn't be eating together, but Naruto wouldn't let them leave before getting the skinny on their evening agenda.

oooooo

Gaara agreed to mini golf because Naruto was going, and he had already planned on spending this free evening with his friend.

He was certainly not here for Lee.

That's what Gaara told himself as he watched Lee try, and fail, to hit a golf ball across the neon blue turf of the course, with a tiny smile on his face.

"Lee you're swinging too hard."

"Understood!" "

No, that's too wide."

"Roger!"

Lee swung again and the club nearly flew out of his hands.

"Lee, come here," Neji muttered, placing his own club down and moving to stand behind his roommate.

Smile gone!

No one else seemed to be paying attention, since they'd taken cover from Lee's wild swinging, and then opted to move on to the next hole before Lee made the shot, but Gaara's eyes were glued to Neji as he placed his arms on either side of Lee's and gripped his wrists.

When something is doused in lighter fluid, it is not immediately obvious how dangerous it is. To the naked eye, it might appear just as innocuous and harmless as it did dry, but all it takes is one _spark_.

One spark, and in a flash it goes up in a burst of extraordinary plumage, consuming the object and ultimately destroying it.

It was with the same sort of intensity that something ugly bloomed deep in Gaara's belly, shooting up and cloistering over his heart the second he saw Neji's hands touch Lee's.

"Don't stick your butt out so much," Neji grunted, which should have been a pacifying statement to the sudden hyperventilation Gaara was experiencing, but just made his nostrils flare instead.

"I'm sorry!" Lee piped back, dramatically thrusting his hips forward in the extreme opposite.

"Okay, just pivot," Neji instructed, guiding Lee through what might have been the proper form for a golf swing, but Gaara just saw it as erotic gesticulating.

He didn't say anything. He just stood there, with his hands gripping the shaft of his club so tightly it tugged at his skin and would probably leave blisters.

These feelings were infuriating. He wanted them to dissipate just as much as he wanted Neji to back away from Lee and then go home.

The only thing that ever made him feel even close to what he was experiencing at this moment, was when Naruto referred to someone else as his best friend.

It was jealousy, and jealousy was ugly. It made him feel weak.

Gaara hated it.

At least with Naruto, he could reconcile his feelings with the perfectly logical point that having someone he regarded as his most precious and special friend not feel the same way about him was bound to be hurtful.

But there was no reasonable explanation for feeling this way about Lee.

He had only known Lee for a week, and Lee was perfectly entitled to have people in his life who pretended to be his roommate and friend but are secretly desperate to molest him right in the middle of a children's mini golf –!

Gaara was furious.

He was furious with what was happening, and furious with himself for feeling this way at all. "Hey! I hit it this time!" Lee cried out delightedly after a small tap from the small plastic ball that was finally moving made Gaara's eye twitch with irritation.

"You missed the hole, but yes, that was better," Neji replied as he stepped away with a grimace when Lee's arms flailed in excitement and nearly smacked him.

"Gaara did you see that?" Lee asked delightedly, skipping away from the friend whose nose he'd almost broken and coming to stand right in front of Gaara as he beamed and waited for an answer.

He saw the swing, technically, but he was blinded with something akin to constipation rage so he hadn't paid attention.

Not that he was going to tell Lee that.

"Yes, good job," he answered, sounding more irritated than he meant to. "You don't need any more help," he heard himself add.

Neji looked up, upon hearing him say that, and raised an eyebrow.

But Gaara wasn't looking at Neji, since he was the antichrist of mini-golfing fun, and completely missed the knowing look he got.

"Thank you, Gaara! But that was far from perfect, I will have to keep working on my form until I can get my ball into a hole!" Lee cried, raising his chin and his fists towards the sky like he was making this promise to the clouds.

Tenten walked up to her friend and lightly thwacked his head. "Lee this is a kid's place, don't yell stuff like that." She didn't explain herself further, so Gaara was left with a splash of confusion contributing to his scowl.

Lee turned pink and immediately covered his mouth, looking horrified, and then shrieked, "I'm sorry!" from behind his hand.

Gaara wasn't sure what he had to be sorry for, but Lee's face made him think it was better not to ask.

"Come on, spaz," Tenten said, gripping Lee's wrist and tugging him towards the rest of the group that had moved further into the course. "Neji, come on!"

After another ten minutes of Lee's backside remaining free of 'guidance', Gaara calmed down to the point where he was simply left feeling vexed that jealousy should have struck him at all.

It simultaneously made him want to glue himself to Lee's side, and ignore him completely.

He ended up doing neither, opting instead to cling to Naruto. He felt safe around Naruto. Naruto made sense to him. Naruto was his friend – it was okay to want to stick to his side and hold onto his sleeve so he couldn't wander away.

Gaara didn't ignore Lee, he just didn't look at him, start conversation, or reply to anything that was addressed to the group and not specifically to him.

This meant that he didn't spot the way Lee's face fell and stayed down.

By the time they were done playing, no more than thirty minutes later, Gaara and Lee were both ready to go home.

But Naruto wanted to stay out.

"Guys, come on! It's only eight thirty – there has to be something else we can go do!" he protested when the group started murmuring things sounding suspiciously like 'goodnight'.

"There aren't any parties we can go to, Naruto," Kiba growled, kicking at his friend's shin.

Naruto jumped back to avoid the harmless assault and then retaliated much more wildly. "Then let's go to someone's dorm and hang out!"

"Whose – yours?"

"No, Shikamaru is probably already asleep," Naruto grumbled.

"I actually have to get up rather early for my meet tomorrow," Lee said, glancing at Gaara who immediately looked down after accidentally making eye contact.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Gaara murmured to Naruto before slipping away.

He realized that he was actually going to have to see Lee and talk to him in less than twenty four hours and he couldn't pretend to have to pee to get out of it – well, he could but it would look like he needed serious medical attention to keep that up for as long as he would need to.

But for this moment, right now, he just needed to step away.

Getting flustered over Lee's presence and his pictures was one thing, but Neji?

Gaara scowled at himself as he went into the men's room.

He hated how terrible that had made him feel.

He couldn't reasonably hide in there for more than a few minutes without raising suspicion, but Gaara lingered by the door, listening to see if he could still hear Lee's voice before he went back outside.

Fortunately the coast was clear.

"Hey, you missed Lee and them, they headed back to campus," Naruto said when Gaara stepped back out and walked over to him.

Gaara just nodded and felt even more annoyed that he was sort of disappointed that Lee hadn't waited for him.

He couldn't make up his damn mind.

"But do you want to hang out? Kiba said we could go to his dorm and play Mario Kart," Naruto said with a grin.

If Lee had to get up early for his meet then Gaara did too, and he should probably be responsible and return to his own dorm and get ready for bed. But he knew that if he went home right now then he would think about Lee, and he would continue to feel crappy.

Gaara didn't want to feel crappy.

Also, Sasuke was here, and anytime Naruto was going to hang out with Sasuke and Gaara was also invited, he made a point to join in the hopes that one day Naruto would correctly identify his best friend.

At least this jealousy was old and familiar to Gaara. He'd been clingy with Naruto for years.

So he agreed.

He was just starting to feel calm again when he sat down on Kiba's floor when his text alert went off.

 _Lee_.

His heart went crazy again and he tried to conceal the sudden change in his breathing from the other men in the small space.

" _Hi, Gaara! I hope you had fun tonight! Will you still be joining my dad and me tomorrow for my track meet? ^^"_

Gaara stared at the text. With every word his heart beat harder and faster and his shoulders felt chilly.

His thumbs hovered over his own phone, unsure of what to type back even though the answer was simple enough to come out in one word.

The symbols at the end threw him off.

Why was Lee sending him cute faces when Gaara had ignored him for two weeks _and_ this evening?

 _"Yes"_ he finally typed back.

The speech bubble indicating that Lee was typing appeared immediately, and Gaara wondered if Lee was doing the same thing as him: sitting down and staring at his phone with a pounding heart.

 _"I'm so glad! We have to leave at 6 a.m., but you can sleep in the car if you wish!"_

Gaara seriously doubted he would do that.

The speech bubble appeared again, so Gaara just stared and waited.

" _We can pick you up outside of your dorm, is that alright?"_

" _Yes"_ he answered, much faster this time.

" _Great! I'm excited! :D You might want a jacket, it can be chilly in the mornings."_

Did Lee think he was unfamiliar with mornings?

And there again, the speech bubble appeared.

" _I will text you tomorrow morning when we are outside. Sweet dreams, Gaara! ^^"_

With the same burst and flood of emotion the site of Neji behind Lee made him feel, this message filled Gaara with warmth and before he could even remind his mouth that he was trying not to draw attention to himself, he smiled.

 _Sweet dreams_.

Had anyone ever said that to him before? He'd heard the expression, and his siblings had used variations of the saying – but _sweet dreams_. It was just so…

Well… sweet.

His thumbs hovered over the keys for a second before typing out the only thing he felt it was appropriate to respond with, and then Gaara slipped his phone back into his pocket with his smile still there.

" _Sweet dreams, Lee."_

oooooo

A/N: Thank you for reading! Studies show that leaving nice comments and kudos lead to better orgasms.


	6. Green Juice, A New Coach, and Stars -

A/N: I'm sorry this hasn't been updated since 2015! I'm a stinker.

oooooo

It was so early.

Gaara wasn't particularly good at sleeping, and lethargy tended to follow him like a shadow regardless of how many hours he got – but it was _so early_.

After leaving Kiba's dorm last night, Gaara made sure he had his camera and lenses packed and ready to go, and very nearly sat down to select an outfit before getting secondhand embarrassment from his hypothetical well-dressed self. Instead he got in bed for sleep.

But sleep did not come.

Gaara started imagining all sorts of possibilities that the next day would bring. Firstly, while he was stuck in a car with Lee and his father – they might try to talk to him and engage in meaningful conversation. Should this prove to be the case, Gaara wanted to come prepared with polite, socially acceptable answers that involved more than his usual stares and grunts. Naruto wouldn't be there to help keep him in line, and since Lee had made it extremely clear how important his father was, Gaara felt compelled to demonstrate his respect for Lee's feelings by making an effort with this man.

But he didn't know how to talk to parents – or adults, for that matter. He barely talked at all even to people he saw on a regular basis. It was, however, quite likely that Lee inherited his loud chatterbox characteristics from somewhere and that was probably from his father. Gaara could be spared from the task of having to supply conversation, and would be happy to assume the role of listener.

After several hours of wondering and getting uncomfortable over what would happen if Lee's father aggressively pelted him with questions that Gaara could not answer and it leading to him forbidding Lee from ever spending time with the red-headed weirdo again, Gaara decided he would pretend to go to sleep if things got uncomfortable.

Then, when that thought wasn't pacifying enough to achieve unconsciousness, Gaara pulled out his laptop and opened the folder of photos he'd taken during Lee's track practice to see if editing a few would relax him enough for sleep.

It had the opposite effect.

After Gaara came back from the bathroom, with flushed cheeks and a pounding heart, furious that he'd let this happen a second time – he got back in bed and pulled out his chemistry textbook.

Twenty minutes later he finally fell asleep.

Unfortunately for Gaara, that happened at about 4:15 in the morning, and it was now 6:00.

He was chilly, sleepy, and irritated with how jittery he felt sans caffeine with impending Lee-time as the only explanation for said jitters.

Gaara barely had time to take a deep breath and collect himself before a car pulled into the turn around driveway in front of the dorm.

It parked in front of him, and Gaara's heart started pounding again before Lee even jumped out.

"Good morning, Gaara!" Lee said brightly, grinning at him without a trace of sleep in his eyes. He looked fresh-faced and delighted to see Gaara standing there.

"Good morning, Lee," Gaara answered, coughing afterwards and cursing himself for it.

"Did you have a chance to eat breakfast?" Lee asked as he pulled open the backdoor of the car and stood to the side, allowing Gaara to go in.

Gaara shook his head as he climbed into the car. "I don't usually have breakfast…"

"That's no good!" a unbelievably loud voice boomed, blowing Gaara's hair back and waking him the fuck up.

So they were skipping introductions – this was Lee's father.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, young man! Especially when you are in college and need fuel for your growing brain! Fear not, though, we have an extra green juice for you!"

Every sentence was a scream. He had pitches, but they all ended in exclamations.

Gaara turned to Lee, who had climbed into the back to sit next to him, and handed him a smoothie cup with some sort of questionable-looking green 'drink' inside.

The man in the front seat turned around just as Gaara gingerly accepted the drink and nodded a 'thank you' to Lee.

"I'm Lee's father, Gai!" he bellowed, just as loud even though he was now facing Gaara. He extended a hand back as best he could while still in the driver's seat. "It's great to meet you, Gaara. Lee has spoken very fondly of you."

He didn't scream that last part, but the sincerity in his words and the pink it brought to Lee's cheeks left Gaara nearly speechless.

"It-hm," he started and then cleared his throat as he shook Gai's hand. "It's nice to meet you too."

Gaara turned to look at Lee, unsure if he was expected to say more – although he could easily tell Gai that Lee spoke fond-words about his father as well, but Gai gave his hand a firm squeeze and then released him so he could turn and face forward again.

"Let's get your seatbelts on, boys! We have a long drive ahead of us. Lee! Would you like some music?" Gai asked, looking into the rearview mirror to check on his son.

Lee raised his eyebrows at Gaara, silently asking for an opinion. "Would that be alright?" he asked politely.

Gaara had lifted the mouthpiece off the smoothie and was too distracted by the smell of _health_ he was expected to drink to be concerned with music. "Whatever you like is fine…" he answered as he brought the cup up to sniff cautiously.

"Music would be great, dad!" Lee called back in an equally unnecessary volume as his father. "It taste better than it smells," he added to Gaara in a softer voice that sent a tingly feeling up Gaara's thigh.

Gaara nodded, more to show that he acknowledged Lee had spoken to him than to agree. He wasn't terribly fond of vegetables recreationally, and having this many of them all at once… and _so early_.

But for Lee, because he had brought him this juice – specifically for Gaara – he took a drink.

…It was horrible.

Thankfully Gai played his music as loudly as he talked and the scream of an 80's glam rock band covered Gaara's gag.

He stole a careful glance at Lee to check that he hadn't caught it, but Lee's eyes were closed as he soulfully screamed along with the song.

Good. That gave Gaara another chance to clench his butthole and try again.

He raised the cup to his lips once more, took a deep breath, and then took a small sip.

That was truly awful.

Gai and Lee were chugging theirs like it was the thing to do, and here Gaara thought he saw his life flash before his eyes.

This time, Lee caught his pained expression and smiled at him sympathetically. "Please do not feel like you must drink it, I just didn't want you to go without breakfast," he explained kindly while his dad continued to scream along with the music.

Gaara looked down at his cup – so full – and then inclined his head to Lee's. "You are drinking yours," he pointed out rather lamely.

Lee grinned and held up his nearly empty cup. "My juice helps me run faster! It's a great energy boost."

Gaara was skeptical. "But you're drinking it so fast."

Lee nodded and demonstrated the point by doing just that. "I must admit that the first time I drank it quickly before a practice, I thought my stomach was going to be upset. But I told myself that if I finished all of my juice before practice started, then I would do a great job! And if I didn't finish my juice, I was going to make myself run ten extra miles!"

Pure disgust and horror at such an idea read plain as day on Gaara's face.

He would rather chug ten juices.

"But I managed to finish my juice and I was right – I ran a personal best! So now I always make sure to give myself the rule of finishing my juice before a meet, or as punishment I will have to do something difficult," Lee explained.

Gaara looked down at his cup once more. His stomach turned at the idea of finishing this, but for Lee…

 _If I don't finish this by the time we get to the meet… Lee will never want to spend time with me again._

That turned out to be an incredibly powerful motivator. He was going to have to poop something fierce later, and he had never gagged so many times on one beverage – but by the time Gai was pulling into a parking spot, his cup was empty.

Lee noticed the cup and beamed at him.

The gagging was worth it for that smile alone.

oooooo

Lee had to separate from them almost immediately. He needed to go check in with the judges and stretch.

The music had done a great job of getting him excited and in the mood to run around and burn off energy, although Gaara had a hard time picturing a muted passionless Lee and couldn't give all the credit to the music.

Before he darted off, Gai pulled his son into what looked like a bone-crushing embrace and told Lee with painful earnestness how proud he was to be Lee's father and how loved his son was.

Lee echoed the sentiment and squeezed his dad back.

Gaara had never seen anything like it. It probably would have looked strange to start snapping photos of this tender family moment, but if ever there was something Gaara needed to study, a positive father-son relationship was it.

It made him feel strange, almost melancholic. He distracted himself by cleaning the lens of his camera just to give himself something else to look at.

 _So unusual._

When they released each other, and Lee faced Gaara, he half wondered if Lee was preparing to pull him into an equally strong hold. Thankfully, for his breathing integrity, Lee simply grinned and said, "I'll see you out there?"

Gaara nodded and put his camera down to give Lee his complete attention. "Yes, you will."

Lee never stopped smiling. This happy boy looked like he was on medication. "I hope you have fun watching!"

It would certainly be fun taking photographs, Gaara ignored any suggestion his brain was about to supply about how fun it would be to watch Lee run around again. To get more photos he'd have to strongly discipline himself in order to edit without needing to run to the bathroom for mortifying release just so he could focus.

"Good luck, Lee," he replied, sensing that his cheeks were close to turning pink from the memory.

"Thank you!"

"Yes, good luck, my precious boy!" Gai boomed, making birds fly out from their perches in nearby trees.

Lee saluted to them and darted off to registration.

This left Gaara alone with Gai, and no 80's music blasting to discourage conversation.

"Have you ever seen Lee run before?" Gai asked immediately, not looking at Gaara but still gazing fondly after his son.

Gaara looked in the same direction as Gai, sensing that he didn't mean this precise moment of Lee sprinting off to check in. "I have attended his practice before."

Gai put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. "Lee is the fastest runner in the whole state! He thrives during competition, the excitement of performance fuels him to run even faster than he does in practice. You are in for a treat!" he proclaimed, looking so damn proud Gaara was sure he was making an incredulous face just listening to the man.

Were there other fathers like this? Other parents who genuinely believed in their children and took pleasure in bragging about them to their kid's friends? Gai was practically radiating 'TEAM LEE' energy that could knock Gaara over if he wasn't careful.

"I look forward to getting some good shots of him," Gaara answered, putting the lens wipe away and preparing to take a few test shots for lighting.

Gai finally looked away from his son, who was now stretching next to the other runners, and faced Gaara with a wide, gleaming white grin. "Lee showed me the photos you took before, they were magnificent!" he said, clapping Gaara on the back so hard that it took reflexes Gaara didn't know he had to grip his camera tight enough to keep it from flying out of his hands.

"Oh… thank you," he said with a bit of effort as air struggled to return to his lungs.

"You're quite talented with those things," Gai said, nodding to the camera. "I'm going to have a few of those shots framed. Did you have any extras that Lee hasn't sent to me?"

 _I have hundreds_ , Gaara thought, tamping down that mortification again.

He nodded and looked down at his camera to avoid Gai's gaze, lest his fatherly senses see in Gaara's eyes what the photos had done to his body. "I can send him a few more."

Gai beamed, looking so much like Lee that it actually put Gaara more at ease around him. "Wonderful! Thank you, Gaara. I'm glad Lee has such a devoted friend!"

All right there was no stopping the blush at that. 'Devoted' actually seemed like a very strong word for 'doing the job he was assigned by the paper', but it was true that he was going above and beyond and certainly felt a strong emotional investment in Lee…

This was too much. Gaara refused to get flustered in front of this man just because he was saying true things that embarrassed him.

"I'd better go get ready," Gaara said, gesturing with this camera.

"Ah, yes!" Gai exclaimed. "Go forth, young man! Take some great pictures of my boy!"

Gaara wasn't sure what to say to that, so he settled on, "…yes," and then walked over to the track to get in position.

He placed himself about ten feet away from the runner's mark, so that he could get some shots right when Lee took off. With so many people here acting as witnesses, Gaara decided he didn't need to grab more shots of Lee sitting and stretching and bending over.

It was close to eight thirty in the morning, and the sun was out to celebrate. Gaara adjusted his camera accordingly, wanting to be perfect and ready to go the moment Lee got into position.

Somewhere behind him, a whistle blew and a woman yelled for the runner's to get on their marks.

Gaara watched as Lee took his place beside the other runners. He had discarded the sweatshirt he wore on the drive down here, and Gaara could now see the lines of muscles in his biceps as Lee finished up his last minute stretching.

He swallowed hard and reminded himself that Lee's father was nearby.

When Lee finished rolling his neck and got into position, he spotted Gaara and grinned brightly, giving a tiny enthusiastic wave to his photographer.

The corner of Gaara's mouth pulled up completely without his consent, and his hand lazily waved back.

He very nearly got lost until the whistle blew again followed by more yelling. Gaara pulled his camera up as Lee and the his fellow runners moved into an almost lunge position, with one leg bent in front of them, the other extended behind them, and both hands lightly touching the ground in front of them.

"On your marks!"

It probably wasn't a real bullet, but a gunshot tore through the dewy morning air – and Lee took off.

Gaara's jaw slowly fell as his eyes followed Lee zooming down the track.

He was _so fast_. Gai was right; this was different from practice. Lee was so fast, so fast and _glowing_.

Gaara's fingers felt numb on his camera and his entire purpose in being at the meet flew out of his brain and dissolved into the chilly air around him. It wasn't until his brain selectively attended to Gai screaming 'Go, Lee!' behind him that Gaara snapped into action.

Just as he had at Lee's practice, Gaara slipped into photographer mode the moment he held the camera up to his eye. Shot after shot, his camera shutter clicked away as Gaara captured every step and breath Lee made as he broke the sound barrier zipping around the track.

Gaara didn't have the same freedom to move around as he had at school, but he did get as close as he could to the edge of the track and waited for Lee to pass him to get a particular shot.

When Lee was less than five feet away from him, Gaara started snapping away like crazy, ensuring that he got this glorious action shot of a runner sparkling in their element.

Gaara's gaze followed Lee running away as he passed by. He was mesmerizing – the other runners weren't even _close_ to him.

With a silent prayer that the shot came out the way he wanted, Gaara hit the button to review his last photo.

It was perfect. Lee's long, glorious legs were flexed and reflecting sunlight off hard-working muscles, and –

Lee had winked at him!

He had actually winked at Gaara, and here it was captured on film!

Gaara almost laughed.

 _Lee was so cool_.

A few seconds later, Lee crossed the finish line. He was leading by such a stretch that Gaara didn't need someone to explain whether or not he'd won. He did, however, have no idea what particular race this was for.

He pulled the camera back up and snapped the excited winner who turned to find Gaara, looking flushed and breathless.

 _So handsome…_

Oh dear.

Best squish that thought right now. The day was young and Gaara couldn't go to pieces over this.

 _You can study the photos later, just calm down_ , Gaara told himself as the person with the whistle yelled more instructions for the runners who had just finished up.

There wasn't a good opportunity to go see Lee, or even for Gai to reach him. The meet moved between events quickly, giving the runners hardly any time to relax and refuel between that screaming whistle telling them to get into place. The meet was scheduled for three hours, at least for Lee's bracket, and Gaara completely lost himself in that time with his camera and the vision of Lee's shiny hair moving faster than a human should be able to.

The only thing he focused on, outside of clicking and framing his shots, was that Lee was winning _everything_.

After his memory card was full of a smiling boy whose neck was laden with four gold medals standing next to the judges, Gaara was finally able to get to Lee.

Just as he approached Lee and opened his mouth to congratulate him on his multiple victories, he was bowled over by another shiny bowl cut moving faster than was reasonable.

"Lee!" Gai howled as he swept his son up in his arms and spun him around. "I am so proud of you!"

"Thank you, dad!" Lee cried back. Wait – when had Lee started crying?

Gai wailed and squeezed his son tighter. "You were absolutely splendid today! You have become such a fine runner!"

Gaara wondered if he should be capturing this moment as well, for science to later analyze and attempt to explain.

 _Why were they crying?_

The other parents who were congratulating their children seemed to realize they were in a splash zone and veered out of the way to celebrate elsewhere.

Gai finally released his child and put hand on Lee's shoulder while the other cupped the back of Lee's neck. "My son," he said fondly, tears still streaming down his face.

As subtly as he could, Gaara raised his camera and framed this shot. This seemed like the sort of moment that Gai would be happy to have a record of later, and since Gaara hadn't captured their embraces earlier, this would be good to study at a later time.

Although subtlety be damned, Gai was so busy crying about his kid that he didn't notice the click from Gaara's camera.

One of the judges came up to interrupt this 'tender' family moment so they could congratulate Lee and shake his hand. After they walked away, Lee finally faced Gaara.

"Did you have fun?" he asked as his dad slung an arm around his shoulders.

Gaara nodded. "You were incredible."

This seemed to please Lee greatly. "Thank you, Gaara! It was my juice!" he replied through a grin.

Gaara shook his head. "No it was _not_."

The only way that juice could be held responsible for making someone run faster was if it was in an effort to reach a toilet before they soiled themselves. It was a good thing the meet was outdoors and parents screamed so loudly that it created a noisy distracting environment. Gaara had been trying to quietly pass gas through out the meet.

"I think we should celebrate Lee's victories with a big lunch!" Gai exclaimed, clasping Lee's shoulder and turning to Gaara. "Do you have time to join us?"

Lee looked so hopeful and excited…

"That would be nice," Gaara answered. _Once he was able to use a restroom._

On the way to the restaurant, Lee sat in the back again. But this time, he placed his gym bag on one of the seats, and sat in the middle right next to Gaara. When Lee put his seatbelt on and relaxed his leg, his thigh rested against Gaara's.

Neither of them moved away.

oooooo

Several days after the meet, Gaara's siblings requested to have dinner together again.

"So…" Kankuro started as he popped a fry into his mouth. "How are you liking college?"

"It's alright," Gaara answered. The simplicity wasn't a dismissal, merely how he felt.

"Yeah? How's your handsome man doing? I saw your photo of him in the paper, you did a good job," Kankuro stated absentmindedly.

Temari rolled her eyes at her brother's nonchalant praise. "You really did, Gaara. That photo looked professional," she said.

Gaara felt his cheeks warm. "Thank you," he replied quietly, looking down at his food.

He was actually extremely proud of how the photos turned out, although he knew that the bulk of the credit went to the subject of the shots. As wonderful as the winking photo had turned out, Gaara felt that it was a private moment between the two of them, and submitted one of Lee running by with a determined look on his face.

The furrow of his brows and the forward pull of his lips with his controlled breathing had shaped his cheekbones in a lovely way that Gaara could hardly take credit for.

In fact, Kankuro and Temari hadn't seen the best of the photos since the stupid paper only wanted _one_. Gaara had a whole series of Lee holding his medals, standing next to his father, and looking so proud and happy that it was downright indecent.

Kankuro nudged his leg under the table. "So?"

Gaara looked up at his brother. "Hm?"

"Your handsome man! How is he?"

If Gaara started blushing right now he would be so irritated with himself. "Lee?" he asked for unnecessary clarification.

Temari smirked at him in a self-satisfied way he usually saw directed at Kankuro. "Yes, _Lee_. How are things going with you two?"

"He's fine…" Gaara replied, shifting uncomfortably. His siblings had never asked about Naruto like this, with smirks or calling him Gaara's.

Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Come on, Gaara – you've gotta give us something more than that. Are you two dating, or what?"

Temari's smirk dropped and she smacked her brother. "Kankuro!"

Gaara's stomach twisted a bit. He didn't like this.

He didn't answer them, and instead sat up straight and fixed his brother with the same glare he had given the newspaper editor when she suggested that Lee didn't need his own photographer.

It wasn't even clear to him _why_ this was such a vexing question, but it pissed him off that his siblings were making such an accusation about his friendship with Lee. Gaara had two friends in the world and Kankuro had to turn it into something inappropriate? What would Lee say if he could hear that question! He would probably never speak to Gaara again.

"Ah, Temari!" Kankuro bit as he knocked his sister's fists away from him. "Gaara, look I'm sorry I wasn't trying to make fun of you-"

"He's just kidding, Gaara. It's great that you have a new friend. We just wanted to know if you were still enjoying spending time with him," Temari said smoothly as she pushed Kankuro out of his chair.

Gaara looked down at his plate. "Yes, I enjoy spending time with him."

"Good! Good, I'm glad. We're glad you made a new friend. And he already knows Naruto? It's perfect," Temari continued. "How are your classes?"

He really didn't want to talk about Lee anymore, so Gaara indulged her swift change of topic. "They're alright. Chemistry is not as interesting as I had hoped."

The rest of dinner was tense. Gaara had trouble looking his siblings in the eyes, and Kankuro stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

Temari left the boys early, leaving Kankuro to walk his brother back to his dorm.

They made the trip in silence, with hands in their pockets, staring at the ground. Gaara felt like he ought to apologize to his brother, at least for glaring at him, but he was worried that Kankuro would take that as an opportunity to talk about Lee more.

So they remained tense until they reached Gaara's dorm.

"Goodnight," Gaara started to say. But his brother held a hand out and stopped him.

"Hold on, Gaara."

He did as he was told and finally looked his brother in the eye.

"I'm sorry for making that joke earlier. I didn't think it would upset you so much," Kankuro said quietly.

"Please don't make jokes like that in front of Lee," Gaara answered softly.

Kankuro held up his hands and looked affronted. "No, no! I wouldn't do that to you, Gaara. This was just –" he stopped and considered his words. "This was just brotherly teasing."

Gaara thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "Ok."

"But – let me just say one more thing and then I won't ever bring this up again," Kankuro began, looking at Gaara seriously.

"Alright…"

"It's ok if you want to date Lee."

Gaara's stomach twisted again and he couldn't help but glare at his brother. "I said he's my friend-"

Kankuro didn't get defensive or raise his voice. "I know, Gaara. I know, and I really think it's great that you've already made a friend who's so cool and nice. But as your older brother, I would rather have you be pissed at me and make sure you know that it's ok. Like him, date him, sleep with him – it's ok."

There was definitely color in Gaara's cheeks. "Why are you telling me this."

His brother laughed and kicked at an imaginary pebble. "We've never really talked about any of this before – dating or sex or anything. And I don't want you to feel embarrassed if it's something you want to do. Especially with a guy."

Gaara shook his head, still confused.

"I mean, it's ok if you like a guy. I've liked guys before!" Kankuro declared. "I think I might even like a guy right now."

"Kiba."

"What? No – Gaara, shut up," Kankuro said, kicking at his brother.

This must be the brotherly teasing Kankuro was referring to.

"I just want to make sure you know, you can talk to me. Alright?" Kankuro waited for Gaara to nod.

"I know."

Kankuro nodded back. "Good. You're my little brother, Gaara. I love you."

The siblings didn't say these words often, because they all already knew it. It didn't need to be said. However this did allow Gaara to breathe out the last of his irritation with his brother and relax.

"I love you too, Kankuro," he answered quietly.

His brother lightly punched his arm. "Now go study."

Gaara rubbed the spot and nodded. "Goodnight, Kankuro."

"Night, buddy," Kankuro answered with a wave.

The advice to study was solid, but hours later when Gaara sat in his bed with his chemistry textbook open on his lap, he could only think about one thing:

 _It's okay to like Lee_.

oooooo

The new coach was two hours late.

Lee assumed this was because of an error on his part, perhaps he'd misread the email and practice was supposed to start at seven instead of five…but if this were any other team then the players would be packing up and heading off to dinner at this point.

He kept glancing over his shoulder as he ran around the track, hoping to see someone authoritative walking toward him.

If he didn't get a new coach, the school might be forced to cut the track team regardless of how well Lee did in competition.

As the minutes ticked by and Lee's feet thudded on the turf, his heart sank.

He would be _devastated_ without track. Running was his whole life! It was his favorite thing to do! Now he certainly didn't need to be on an official team to _run_ , but he loved competition – and the athletic department kept giving him extremely vague answers when he asked about how this would affect his scholarship.

Lee knew what happened when athletes got hurt, so he assumed his treatment would be no different if his sport was cut.

Just as tears pricked into the corners of his eyes, Lee threw one last desperate glance over his shoulder and nearly screamed with relief when he saw someone walking toward the track.

He stopped and turned around so he could greet them.

 _Please, let this be the coach!_

"Hi!" he called out once they were within fifty feet of each other. It was difficult to make the person's features out, but he thought he saw a hand raise and heard a mumbled response.

"Are you the new track coach?" Lee asked, raising his arm up to shield some of the glare from the stadium lighting that made it difficult to see far away potential coaches.

Another mumbled answer was all he got, but Lee was almost certain it was an affirmative 'mhmm'.

"I'm so excited to meet you! My name is Rock Lee! I'm the only member of the team this year!" Lee chirped as he thrust his hand forward, just like his dad taught him, once he finally came to stand directly in front of this person.

The man, since Lee could now see that it was in fact _a man_ , looked down at Lee's hand and shook it once.

"Well kid, I've got some good news and some bad news," he said, taking his hand away and putting it in his pant's pocket.

Lee's heart sank again.

"Yes, sir?"

The man moved close enough that his head blocked the light behind him and Lee was able to see him more clearly. The mumbling made sense now that Lee could see some kind of mask covering his mouth and stretching up to cover one of his eyes.

Lee was careful not to stare at him, although he did have questions.

"The good news is, I am your new track coach," the man said as he put his hands into his pockets.

Lee screamed and scared his new coach. With complete abandon to the polite decorum he'd attempted to establish with the enthusiastic handshake, Lee threw his arms around this man and started crying.

"I'm so happy!" Lee sobbed. "I've been so afraid the school wouldn't find someone and track would get cut!"

The coach was kind enough to let Lee compose himself and withdraw his arms so he could wipe his tears away, although his one visible eye was wide and alarmed by this exuberant teen.

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," the coach began, in a voice that sounded more bored than regretful. "But I am only a temporary coach."

Lee's heart stopped.

The man looked around the track and sighed. "The truth is, I have never coached this sport before. I am doing this because I lost a bet."

That was definitely not what Lee hoped to hear… but he chose to focus on the positive.

"I see… well, thank you for agreeing to coach me, even if it's only temporary! I certainly hope that in our time together I can make you as excited about track as I am!" Lee declared.

The visible eyebrow raised but Lee was undeterred.

"If you have any questions about coaching, I am certain that my father would be happy to assist. He was my coach in high school," Lee explained, clenching his fists and gaining confidence. "He's a wonderful coach and helped me get to this point!"

The man let out a tiny laugh and rolled his shoulders back. "I don't doubt it, kid, but I don't want to get your hopes up-"

Too late.

"He's going to be here next week! You could meet him then! It would be a great opportunity –"

"Hold on-" the man started, taking one of his hands out of his pocket and holding it up to try and stop this excitable freight train.

"In fact – just one moment, please!" Lee shrieked as he turned and darted back to where his gym bag sat abandoned.

The coach sighed and put his hand down in defeat.

Lee returned holding his phone. "If you like, I can give you his number and you could talk to him before then-"

"That's alright, I can just wait until –"

The coach stopped and interrupted himself and he frowned at Lee's phone, where he'd just pulled up his father's contact information; including a photo.

Lee leaned forward, trying to read the coach's face. "Is everything alright?"

The coach took Lee's phone from his hands without asking. "This is your father?"

Lee ignored the grab and grinned. "Yes! That is my father-"

"Gai."

Lee furrowed brows that matched the pair his coach was still frowning at on his phone. "You know my father?"

The coach glanced up at Lee and then handed the phone back. "I knew your dad a long time ago, before you were born."

"That's amazing! I'm sure he will be so happy to hear from an old friend! Please excuse me for not asking sooner, but maybe he has mentioned you before – what is your name?"

The man fixed Lee with a long stare. The night grew quiet, and even the wind paused to hear this answer. "Hatake Kakashi," he finally answered with a long sigh.

Lee gasped and Kakashi looked hopeful. But after a few seconds of silence and Lee frowning, he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I do not recall my father mentioning you."

Kakashi deflated.

Lee looked down at his phone, as though his father's picture was going to remind him of all the times he'd brought this man up. "However, my father is not great with names and neither am I. But I will call him tonight and ask him all about you!" Lee promised.

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "There's no need to call him tonight. In fact, maybe we can make it a surprise for when he's here next week," he suggested, closing his eye.

A surprise… keeping something from his father… not talking…

Lee didn't like any of that.

However, he wanted to be on his coach's good side so he would feel more inclined to stay! So if he wanted to surprise Lee's dad, then a surprise Gai would have.

He nodded and put his phone away. "Alright."

The coach returned his hand to its seemingly favorite place inside his pant's pocket. "Well, since we finished our introductions, I guess I'll leave you to it."

Lee blanched. "You're leaving? But - but you just got here! Aren't we going to practice?"

Kakashi frowned and looked around at the empty space. "It's dinner time. We'll meet tomorrow. 5 o'clock sharp."

He was disappointed not to get a chance to work together tonight, but Kakashi was right: Lee was hungry. "Yes, sir!" Lee said.

Kakashi nodded at him and turned on his heel. "See you tomorrow, Lee."

Lee was about to turn back to retrieve his bag when Kakashi stopped and looked back at him. He didn't say anything at first, just stared like he was trying to make sense of something.

"Is everything alright?" Lee asked, genuinely concerned.

Kakashi closed his eye again, and Lee could swear he heard him smile underneath that mask. "You look just like him. I should have known who you were as soon as I saw you."

Lee beamed. He never tired of hearing people remark on the strong resemblance he bore to his father; whom he happened to think was epitome of handsomeness and masculinity.

"Thank you!"

Kakashi considered him for a moment further. "You really are his kid."

Yes, he was.

Lee wasn't sure how to answer that other than an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

With another turn on his heel, Kakashi waved lazily and called back, "See you tomorrow, Lee."

"Have a good night!" Lee replied as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Since it was dinnertime after all, and Lee wanted to tell a certain someone about the wonderful news of getting a new track coach, he pulled open his text messages and opened the first contact.

" _Hi, Gaara! I just finished track practice. Would you like to have dinner together?"_

Lee walked back to his things while he waited for an answer.

By the time his bag was up and slung over his shoulder his phone was chirping at him.

" _Yes. Where?"_

Lee was smiling so stupidly at his phone as he made dinner plans that he failed to notice Kakashi had stopped and turned back to look at him again.

oooooo

A/N: Thank you for reading!

The green juice bit is actually based on my IRL relationship with bloatedcrayon. The first time we met, before we started dating, she had one of those disgusting green drinks and made one for me as well. I added a bunch of lemon juice but was still gagging trying to get that thing down, and the only thing that got me through it was the hypothetical threat to myself 'if you don't finish this - she will never like you back'. And since we started dating the next day I gotta say - green drinks are powerful. (They're also nasty and she's insane).


	7. Musings, Funny Feelings, and Reunions

A/N: Thank you for the sweet reviews on the last chapter! I'm tentative to give a concrete posting time-table, since I work full time and recently went back to school so it's not always possible to anticipate when time to write will be there - but I am determined to make a more concentrated effort not to let writer's block or self doubt get the best of me again. Sweet reviews and knowing people are interested in this story really do help, so thank you for reading!

oooooo

In Gaara's first month of college, he'd gained a lot of valuable information.

Firstly, if he wanted a variety of muffins to choose from at breakfast then he needed to arrive before six thirty in the morning. If he came in at eight, like a normal person, then he was left with flax seed.

Second, Lee was like some kind of magical bizarre bean who enjoyed getting up early enough to grab a chocolate, blueberry, or banana nut muffin, and was all too happy to hold onto the delicious flavors and exchange them for the sad healthy one Gaara was left with.

Third, Lee and his roommates were the only pleasant people on campus besides the people Gaara knew from high school. Even within that group, Kiba had not yet won him over. Really it was Naruto that Gaara thought fondly of and spending time with him usually meant staying in the company of his Konoha friends.

It was Gaara's roommate and the upperclassman he shared studio space with that Gaara wanted to discretely toss off a cliff.

For years he had heard stories of Naruto's best friend, someone who had moved away right before he and Naruto became friends. Things ended badly with this guy, and frankly Gaara was never able to understand why Naruto held onto the memories with this person so tightly and tried so hard to stay in his life.

Gaara and his delightful ass were right there - what more did Naruto need?

So it was a completely annoying coincidence that Gaara found himself sharing a dorm room with the very human he'd heard so many stories about.

The one positive to this twist was that Naruto was in his room all the time trying to catch his former friend to force him to talk, and since this person was determined to avoid Naruto, that left him and Gaara alone to bond.

Unfortunately their time together now consisted heavily of Naruto asking lots of questions about what his Gaara's roommate did, said, when he came back to the room, and if he ever mentioned Naruto's name.

Since Gaara didn't spend a considerable amount of time in his room, he wasn't able to provide a wealth of information outside of when this person slept. It went against his natural instincts to give the matter this level of consideration, but for the love of his best friend he did make an effort to pay attention to things his roommate did and said.

Naruto seemed tortured over the estrangement. Gaara didn't understand it, but he hoped that if enough time of this person's dismissal went on that Naruto would come to his senses and go back to appreciating the friend he had who greatly enjoyed spending time with him.

The one thing he refused to do was spend all his free time in his room waiting for this man to come back. For one thing, Gaara had a difficult time focusing on his studies in that tiny space. The other boys living in the dorm did not use their rooms exclusively for academic pursuits. It was hard to give his full attention to his homework when he could hear someone aggressively fucking his hand on the other side of the wall.

He made good use of the library, and for his photography work he had the studio space.

This was where his second least favorite person dwelled.

While Gaara had been under the assumption that he had his own studio space in the photography lab, this delicate impression was quickly corrected with a condescending laugh and sneer from the junior he had to share the space with.

The man was a prick. He thought he was the god's gift to photography, art, the world - he acted as though Gaara should feel grateful to even be sharing the same air as him. He had gone so far as to raise an official complaint to the head of the art department that he had to share his space with a novice freshman who couldn't be trusted not to ruin his projects.

It was absurd, as Gaara had done nothing to warrant the mistrust, and it was only after a second interaction with this student that Gaara realized the move was really just to be rude.

This junior wasn't even a photographer primarily, and was only taking the course to fulfill the requirements of an art major. The studio space was filled with his little ceramic projects - or clay, Gaara wasn't allowed to touch them and he didn't want to engage in any more conversation than necessary with this person so he had not asked for clarification on the material.

In any case, his dorm room and his studio were now places Gaara didn't care to linger.

Whenever he wasn't in class, pooping, or sleeping, and if Naruto was off chasing after his old friend, Gaara had taken to spending his free time with Lee. The bizarre effect that being in Lee's presence had on his body, Gaara reasoned would go away the more time they spent together. So far this had not proven to be the case, but the year was young.

Lee was just so good and warm, and he loved telling stories about Naruto before Gaara knew him. Gaara liked being around his friend. It was difficult to study with Lee, since Lee struggled to remain quiet and focused if he was around others (Neji and Tenten confirmed this by warning Gaara against trying to get homework done with Lee around), so it was mostly meals that they took together. Gaara felt strange attending Lee's track practices now that there was a coach present, but he had walked Lee to practice twice in the last week, and during the walks Lee asked him all about his classes, his siblings, and his day.

It was nice.

He had also been unable to forget what his brother told him.

 _It's okay to like Lee_.

Gaara was not one hundred percent sure what Kankuro meant by this. Mostly because Gaara did not think he had ever 'liked' someone in the way Kankuro was suggesting. There was a time when he thought he felt that way about Naruto… but he quickly realized that Naruto did not feel that way about him, and Gaara did not want to risk losing his only friend by investigating the matter further by requesting all the photos he thought would help him better understand his own feelings.

So he dismissed it entirely. Told himself that Naruto was his friend and nothing more, and never entertained the question of liking him in any way beyond that again.

Looking back, Gaara chalked up the intensity of his feelings as the incredible rush from finding a best friend when he'd never had one before. Lee gave him similar feelings, so this was probably a repeat of his experience with getting close to Naruto.

The only difference, the troubling difference, was that Naruto never made Gaara's lower half behave the way Lee did.

This was the thing that continued to make Gaara crazy, and no amount of staring at Lee's pictures to try and understand could provide any clarity. _It only ever made things worse_.

When he found himself crying out and coming in his hand for a third time after trying to edit some photos for Lee's father from the track meet, Gaara felt sick and ashamed.

Lee didn't deserve this.

Gaara had taken a shower, washed his spill down the drain, washed the tears off his face, and told himself that was it. No more bathroom events no matter how the photos made him feel. In the same sense that he expected himself to calm down around Lee over time, he told himself that the only way he could grow to edit pictures of Lee without having a physical reaction was if he didn't indulge himself every time he got one.

He didn't want to lose Lee as a friend over something so ridiculous.

Gaara briefly considered taking his brother's offer to talk, and asking if he had ever found himself in a similar situation, but the idea proved to be too mortifying. He didn't think he could endure any 'brotherly teasing' about masturbating over Lee's photographs.

So he would figure this out on his own. The usual method of studying a photo might not work at present, but Gaara could figure out Lee's art over time. Perhaps friends were harder to figure out because they are more important - masterpieces.

That idea comforted Gaara. It gave him some sense of control over the feelings he couldn't explain that Lee gave him.

In the meantime, he would try to enjoy that he had a new friend: a new, wonderful, _handsome_ friend.

oooooo

"Neji, just grow up and clean the drain!" Tenten yelled, dangerously close to whipping something hard and sharp at her roommate.

The bathroom situation only took a few weeks to bring about war.

No one wanted to clean the hair in the drain. Lee didn't mind, but Tenten pointed out that the responsibility shouldn't fall to the one person using the shower who didn't have long brown hair.

Truly, the horrifying rat creature developing on the drain was a Neji and Tenten hair baby, and the issue of who was responsible for cleaning up after their child could only be determined fairly by a weekly coin toss.

They were only a month into the school year, and only thought to do it for the first time this week, but Neji didn't want to be the first one to do it.

Even though he called heads when the coin came tails up on the back of Lee's hand.

Neji argued that since their hair had accumulated for a month, this was a larger mess than they would usually have to deal with and that he had not agreed to clean up such a large volume hair-babies at the result of this coin toss.

Lee had volunteered more than once to just rid the shower of the thing so they could go back to their peaceful living situation, but Tenten was not having any of Neji's shit.

Neji folded his arms across his chest and stared, unamused, at Tenten. "I have already told you I am not going to touch that thing. We agreed to weekly hair removal, not to-"

"I am going to strangle you with your hair if you don't just grab a paper towel and grow up!" she interrupted.

Lee was sitting on the edge of the couch again, looking between his friends and wishing this would end. He had completed a particularly grueling training circuit today and wanted very much to go relax his muscles in a hot bath.

But the rat had to go first.

Neji flipped his hair back, partly because he knew it would piss off Tenten further. "Lee said he would do it, why not just let him?"

Tenten growled. "Lee has _short_ hair," she hissed, reaching her hand out and placing it on top of Lee's head as though Neji wouldn't know where to look. Lee turned his head a few times to make his hair swish a bit and further illustrate the point. "This isn't his fault."

"It isn't exclusively mine either," Neji said, not for the first time that day. His prissy ass was determined to get out of this.

Tenten couldn't handle it anymore. She let out an animalistic screech, threw a cup at Neji, and then stomped into her room screaming, "I hate boys!"

Once she had slammed the door shut she added, "Not you, Lee."

Lee turned his large, pleading eyes to Neji and made an imploring face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Neji demanded, frowning.

"Neji, I really need to take a bath," Lee said.

"Fine, then go clean the hair and take your bath. You said you didn't mind doing it and Tenten can't see you-"

"I can still hear you!" she yelled from the other side of her closed door.

Neji glared at the piece of wood and then sighed when he saw Lee still giving him puppy dog eyes.

"Tenten will be cross with me if I clean the hair. Please, Neji?" Lee asked politely.

The puppy dog eyes worked every time. It pissed Neji off.

"Fine. Fine! But at least let me go out and get new rubber gloves first. The pair we have are already disgusting-"

Lee looked at the clock and shook his head. "I'm meeting Gaara for dinner in an hour, I won't have enough time to take a bath if I have to wait for you to run to the store."

Neji unwrapped his arms and pulled his hands into frustrated fists down by his side. "Then take your bath after dinner, Lee! The gloves we have are soiled."

This suggestion positively scandalized Lee. "I cannot meet Gaara like this! I'm all sweaty - Neji, _please_."

In much the same fashion that Tenten had, Neji scowled and stomped off to the bathroom. " _Fine_ , Lee. But you and your boyfriend better be grateful."

"Thank you, Neji!" Lee called after him, privately glad that his roommate couldn't see the flush that calling Gaara his boyfriend had brought to his cheeks.

Tenten opened up her door a crack and grinned out at Lee, coyly. "You're going to meet _Gaara_?" she teased.

" _Yes_ ," Lee answered through a happy smile as he turned to face her.

Neji screamed from the bathroom. "It's bigger!"

Tenten waved her hand dismissively. "Ignore him. So where are you two going to eat?"

"We're just meeting each other in the cafeteria," Lee replied, looking down at his twisted hands and not at all trying to keep the growing smile off his face.

"Look at you, the smitten kitten," Tenten teased. "Is this a date?"

Retching noises were now coming from the bathroom.

Lee waved his hands frantically. "No, no! Nothing like that. I would have told you if this was a date!"

Tenten kicked at him suggestively. "Well, it's been a month - when are you going to ask him out?"

Neji came back in the room looking horror-struck. "Did you add more hair to that pile?" he asked shakily.

"Neji, you sound insane," Tenten said.

"That pile was bigger," Neji grumbled. "And we have already discussed this. Lee should not be asking Gaara out at all this year. He's a freshman and-"

For the third time that evening, Neji was interrupted.

"You're the one who just called him Lee's boyfriend!" Tenten scowled, looking as though she might throw something else at Neji.

Neji turned a most unamused expression at her and inclined his chin. "I was clearly being facetious. If I am to be held accountable for every _joke_ I make-"

"Neji, I swear to god-" Tenten started.

Lee could see this was not going anywhere good, and with the hair pile gone he really didn't want them to start fighting over something new - especially not this. "I am not ready to ask out Gaara yet," he clarified. "Right now we are enjoying getting to know each other as friends!"

Tenten looked skeptical. "Really? Are you only saying that because señor archaic is over here telling you to wait a _year_."

That was partially true, and also why Lee wasn't terribly keen to have this discussion right now. "What Neji said last time is true: I do not want to appear as an inappropriate upperclassman. It is better to be friends, and develop genuine trust and affection than to make him believe that I have only lewd intentions," Lee explained.

"And if it becomes clear in the course of your friendship that Gaara isn't interested in dating? Or that he doesn't like men?" Neji pressed.

Lee shrugged. "He is still my friend. I would be sad…" he paused to give this sincere consideration, and then immediately shook it off. "But I believe we would be very happy together! Even if nothing more than friendship comes out of our meeting, I am grateful for the time I get to spend with him."

Tenten and Neji knew Lee well enough to tell that his words were true. He wouldn't cease spending time with Gaara if dating was taken off the table.

But they also knew the look in his eyes…

"You really like him, don't you?" Neji asked quietly.

Without skipping a beat, Lee happily yelled back, "I do! And now if you'll please excuse me, I must take my bath."

In a much more chipper fashion than the way Neji and Tenten had previously exited the room, Lee went into the bathroom and started the water as soon as the door was closed.

"I think you're being overly cautious," Tenten said before Neji could start in on her. "Lee is an _adult_ \- he's not going to fall apart if things don't turn out the way he wants them to."

"Why should he endure heartache at all? It is better for him to resist getting too attached to someone who will only bring him sadness," Neji answered solemnly.

Tenten stared at him. "Who hurt you?"

Neji scowled. "You remember last year just as well as I do. Lee isn't normal - he feels things too strongly."

"Do you plan on locking him up until someone comes by with a dowry and a marriage proposal?" Tenten retorted, growing more irritated by the second. "And what are you, his keeper?"

"Perhaps I simply care more about him than you do."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Oh blah, you ass. Come on, let's go eat," she said, ducking back into her room for her meal card. "I don't have the energy to argue with your angst on an empty stomach."

Neji scowled at her, but retreated to his room to grab his own meal card nonetheless.

Lee turned up the water to the bath after the door to the apartment closed. He smiled to himself as he slipped into the hot water and closed his eyes.

The door to the bathroom was thin, and he'd heard every word they'd spoken. Although some might have found it vexing to have their friends seemingly making decisions about hypothetical relationships in their stead, Lee felt extremely grateful to have two people who cared for him so much.

He had listened to their counsel so far, and really enjoyed his time with Gaara in a purely platonic sense. It was wonderful! There was merit to getting to know someone before asking to have his babies.

His father had counseled Lee to determine exactly how he felt about Gaara before making any decisions. It took Lee all of five seconds to check in with his heart and decide that he liked Gaara very very much, in a most romantic sense.

But he waited, and he exercised patience and observation at the behest of his loved ones.

Time only strengthened his resolve. Every minute that he spent with Gaara, next to him, texting him, _thinking_ about him brought Lee joy and light. Gaara was quieter than Lee by nature, and listened to Lee's stories and commentary with such intense focus - and he was so passionate about his photography! Lee had never gone to Gaara's studio, but he desperately wanted to watch Gaara while he edited and worked on something he enjoyed so much.

And then… there was the somewhat embarrassing thing.

Lee was _so_ attracted to Gaara. Just seeing him was enough to send his heart into an excited frenzy and make the back of his knees weak. Sitting next to him on the ride home from his track meet, with their thighs touching -

Even though he was alone, in the bath, Lee's cheeks turned pink from bashfulness. It seemed impolite, how much he had enjoyed that chaste touch. He hadn't actively tried to rest his leg against Gaara's - and Gaara had worn pants so it wasn't as though their skin made direct contact, but he felt like there was a moment when they both realized they were touching, and they each made a decision not to move their legs.

The perfectly innocent memory was starting to give Lee a funny feeling in his midsection. The tint in his cheeks turned deeper, and Lee reached forward to grab his washcloth. He ran it under the faucet for a few seconds, with the water turned as cold as it would go, and then placed it directly on his crotch.

He could hardly claim to be purely Gaara's friend if he took advantage of their precious time together by pleasuring himself to memories of it. He didn't want to be that guy. He didn't want to hurt Gaara the way Lee had been hurt last year.

This was probably over thinking, just as Neji appeared to be doing, but unless he got Gaara's express consent (which wouldn't happen unless Lee admitted to what he felt compelled to do in the bath), he would refrain from picturing his friend while his hand was between his legs.

Then, if he was lucky enough to date Gaara in the future, Lee could say he did things the right way; the virtuous way.

At the very least, Lee would continue to be able to look Gaara in the eye without bursting into flames of shame.

' _But I can do it - I will be strong for him!'_ Lee thought as he relaxed further into the bath.

The washcloth had thankfully done what Lee needed it to. Now he could rest here for a bit, give his poor muscles a break, then soap up so he would arrive for dinner with his crush looking fresh and clean!

Lee smiled and closed his eyes.

' _Nice and clean for Gaara.'_

oooooo

"Wow!" Lee practically screamed as he slowed down his comet-like zoom once he passed the solid painted line on the track for the sixteenth time in the last eight minutes.

"Hm?" Kakashi answered, not looking up from the book in his hands.

"I think that might be the fastest I've ever run!" Lee panted enthusiastically.

Kakashi nodded and turned a page. "Ohhh - good job."

He did not sound terribly interested.

Lee lifted up his shirt to wipe some of the sweat off his forehead, and grinned expectantly at his coach when he covered his stomach back up.

"What was my time?"

"I wasn't timing you."

Kakashi had an interesting take on coaching. So far, Lee wasn't sure that it agreed with his athletic way.

Lee pursed his lips in a pout and went to retrieve his water bottle while his coach remained absorbed in his literature.

"What time is your dad coming?" Kakashi asked after a few moments of Lee gulping down water.

Lee wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and lit up again. "He said he would be here by six thirty! We are going to get something to eat after practice - would you like to join us?"

This book must have a bungee-gum like connection with Kakashi's eyes because he did not look away no matter how loud Lee was.

"Perhaps. I'll wait and see where you're eating," he answered.

"Well, I'm sure dad would be more than happy to pick a place you like - Dad!" Lee screamed, interrupting himself and dropping his water bottle when he saw his father walking toward the track.

That was the first thing all evening that gave Kakashi strong enough incentive to look up from his book.

Of course, Lee didn't notice this because he was already sprinting over to his dad by the time sound had traveled through space and alerted Kakashi to the presence of the other man.

"Catch me!" Lee yelled before jumping and hurling himself into his father's arms.

It was an old game, a silly game, but it didn't matter how old Lee was or how sweaty his clothes were: Gai always caught him and spun his son around.

"Lee! You're positively glowing with endorphins! You must have had an excellent workout," Gai said with a proud smile, focus completely devoted to his son.

Lee dropped down and out of his father's sturdy catch. "Yes! I think I may have hit a new personal best, but I forgot to ask my coach to time me so I could be wrong."

"Ah, yes! You must be Lee's -" Gai turned to face Kakashi, who had not moved from where he stood, but had finally put his book down and was staring at the father and son with his visible eye.

Gai's expression was undecipherable to Lee.

"Kakashi…"

Lee wracked his brain, now that he'd heard the coach's name in his father's voice, but for the life of him he _could not_ remember hearing any stories about this man.

After another moment of stillness, Kakashi lifted one hand in a lazy wave and called back, "Yo."

"Coach Kakashi mentioned that you had met before, but Dad how do you know each other?" Lee asked the back of his father's head as he walked toward Kakashi.

His father did not appear to have heard his question. It was unusual for him to ignore Lee completely.

"Dad?"

"It's been a while," Kakashi said once he and Gai were within a familiar distance. His hands were stuffed into his pockets, and although his tone was bored, Lee thought it might be the sharpest his eye had ever looked.

There was a moment of silence where Gai opened his mouth and seemed at a loss, which was _extremely_ unusual, before he laughed and tried to shake himself out of it.

"You've put on some muscle! That's good!" Gai boomed, clapping Kakashi's arm where the supposed new muscle lay. He kept his eyes downcast.

Lee didn't know what to make of the tension he felt. His dad had clapped hundreds of people on the arm while praising their muscle gain, but Gai usually made sincere direct eye contact while he did so.

"I've done a few push ups in the last eighteen years," Kakashi said, nonchalantly rolling his shoulders back and cocking his head to the side a bit in what Lee hoped was a playful gesture. "And you're as thick as ever."

Gai barked out a laugh that Lee recognized as embarrassed, although he was more distracted by the 'eighteen years' comment.

 _'Kakashi said he knew my dad before I was born…'_ Lee mused, though he remained silent.

"So - Lee! Are you hungry?" Gai asked, facing his son with the intense gaze Lee was familiar with.

"Yes! But before we go, would it be alright if I asked Gaara to join us?" Lee replied.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Of course! I'm concerned that he doesn't eat enough."

Lee nodded seriously and went to retrieve his cell phone from his gym bag, giving Kakashi and Gai some privacy at the same time.

It was so kind of his father to be concerned over Gaara's diet. However it was likely that Gai determined Gaara wasn't eating enough based on how much he and his son ate, and Gai and Lee were probably not the best control groups.

Lee pulled his phone off and selected Gaara's name from his contacts. He had added a tiny camera emoji next to his crush's name.

 _My dad is here! Do you want to come get ice cream with us tonight? :D He said he would be delighted to see you._

Gaara's response was prompt and filled Lee with butterflies.

 _ **Yes. I'm almost finished in the photography lab. 15 more minutes.**_

Lee's fingers typed out an answer while he kept an eye on the men.

 _Yay! What kind of ice cream are you going to get? :P_

 _ **Do I have to decide now? What kind are you getting?**_

 _Strawberry with gummy bears on top!_

Kakashi and Gai were talking, but quietly enough that Lee couldn't make it out. He wanted to pipe up and ask his father again how he knew Kakashi, but Gaara's timely responses kept Lee focused on his texting.

 _ **Gummy bears?**_

Lee was so shocked by this response that his hair shot out in all directions and he almost called Gaara instead of texting back.

What kind of poor neglected child didn't know what gummy bears were?

 _They're tiny little bears that are chewy like gummies - like worms! Have you never had them before? I am happy to share mine with you!_

Poor Gaara.

This response was much faster.

 _ **No, Lee-**_

But the little 'typing' symbol remained, so Lee let Gaara finish his thought.

 _ **I have had gummy bears. I was just surprised that you would put them on ice cream.**_

A hyperbolically large weight lifted from Lee's chest at this news. Thank goodness Gaara's childhood at least contained gummy bears.

 _My mistake! XD You can get any kind of candy you like on your ice cream! What is your favorite candy?_

This was an opportunity to educate _and_ learn.

 _ **I don't know, I don't eat a lot of sweets.**_

Lee made a mental note of this and nodded even though Gaara couldn't see him.

 _Would you prefer something besides ice cream?_

He was more than fine with changing their culinary plans if Gaara wanted something else, which reminded him -

"Coach Kakashi?" Lee called out, interrupting the quiet conversation he was having.

Kakashi gave him that same tired "Hm?"

"Would you like to join us for ice cream?" Lee asked.

His coach didn't answer immediately, and Gai opened his mouth like he was going to instead.

"Ice cream after track practice."

That wasn't really an answer, barely even a complete thought, so Lee politely waited for a further stream of consciousness.

"I must say no. I have to do…"

There was an uncomfortably long pause where Gai and Lee looked at each other as though one of them might know the end of that sentence, before it became clear Kakashi had no intention of finishing the thought.

Lee sent a head's up ' _We will be outside the art building in five minutes!'_ message to Gaara and slung his gym bag over his shoulder. "Oh, I understand! I'm sorry that you two didn't get a lot of time to talk...if you like, I can go meet Gaara and we can walk to the ice cream place and dad you could meet me there-"

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively at Lee. "There's no need for any of that. I have some reading to catch up on," he said as he retrieved his book from his pocket.

Gai laughed again, but it sounded just as out of character and uncomfortable as he had earlier. "You're still reading those?"

Without looking at Gai, Kakashi nodded. "Oh, yup. I like what I can count on, and these babies have always been around."

Lee didn't perceive that as a barb, but Gai deflated a bit.

"Kakashi, I-"

"Lee, I'll see you for practice tomorrow," Kakashi said, continuing like he hadn't heard Gai start to speak.

Sadly, for Gai, Gaara had texted Lee back at the same time so Lee was looking down at his phone and missed the way Gai's expression fell further.

By the time Lee looked up, smiling again at Gaara's reply, Kakashi was already walking away.

"See you tomorrow!" Lee yelled after him as he walked up to his dad. "Did you two get to talk about coaching at all?"

Whatever Gai was feeling, he shook off for the sake of his son and gave Lee an affectionate ruffle of his hair. "Not enough! There is much to discuss and I think your training will benefit if we are given the chance to meet again."

Lee nodded in understanding. "Do you want to spend the night here and come to practice tomorrow? I'm sure Neji and Tenten won't mind-"

"Ah, my sweet Lee!" Gai cried as he pulled his son into a hug. "I am overcome with emotion that my wonderful son wants to have a sleepover with me! However, I have things to take care of at home. I will return next week, and perhaps we can bring Neji and Tenten to dinner! I would like to see them!"

"That would be great!" Lee answered as he was released from the hug.

The pair continued chirping away about training and their plans as they walked in the direction of the art building. Lee was too excited and distracted to notice, but Gai cast a glance over his shoulder and was not at all surprised to see his old friend still standing on the track, watching him walk away.

oooooo

A/N: I want to wrap Gaara and Lee in a warm blanket and make them happy and comfortable like baby otters asleep on their mother's tummies.


End file.
